The Department is closely monitoring the Middle East conflict to assess any potential impact on United Kingdom medical supply chains. This includes ongoing discussion with industry partners about potential impacts on necessary raw materials and finished products used in healthcare.

We maintain well‑established contingency arrangements to manage supply disruptions where these occur. These can include coordination of mutual aid, work to identify alternative products, alternative clinical practices, regulatory easements, and/or use of the Express Freight Service which can provide bespoke global logistics services in the event of critical supply disruption.

We will continue to engage industry and health system partners to identify and mitigate any potential impact on patient care.

The Defra Disinfectant test scheme, operated by the Animal Health and Plant Agency, utilises fully validated and United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accredited tests. These tests operate at a temperature of four degrees centigrade. Whilst this is not the minimum temperature a disinfectant may need to operate at in the UK it is representative of typical UK conditions and significantly lower that the ten degrees centigrade required by European standard (EN) tests. Changing this temperature would have significant implications for the products already approved under this scheme.

The Defra Disinfectant test scheme, operated by the Animal Health and Plant Agency, utilises fully validated and United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accredited tests to determine the likely efficacy of disinfectants in controlling animal disease pathogens when used in the UK environment. Some comparative testing has been done to assess European standard (EN) tests for veterinary disinfectant efficacy but EN tests currently do not use the target organism or temperatures representative of the UK environment. The work we have conducted to date has shown that the standard EN tests are easier to pass compared to the equivalent Defra disinfectant test. We continue to monitor standards used elsewhere in the world and remain confident the Defra scheme offers the UK government strong assurance that the products passing the test will be effective in the UK environment.

The Defra Disinfectant test scheme, operated by the Animal Health and Plant Agency, provides assurance that disinfectants can be effective in controlling animal disease pathogens when used in the UK environment. The test is designed to operate at four degrees centigrade which is representative of typical UK conditions. Defra has no plans to introduce tests at higher temperatures.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has taken the context of this question to mean that the term biological cleaning systems are the use of industrial enzymes (microbial and other animal sources) that are added to certain specialised healthcare and industrial cleaning products, typically used to pre-treat/clean equipment surfaces prior to finally cleaning or disinfection. HSE is not aware of the use of any biological cleaning systems like these being used to reduce the spread of COVID-19. HSE does provides guidance on Cleaning, hygiene and handwashing to reduce coronavirus (COVID-19) transmission (hse.gov.uk) as well as Disinfecting using fog, mist and other systems during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (hse.gov.uk).’

In response to the above statement made by the Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform, there is adequate guidance on the use of non-alcohol sanitisers from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, including on flexible approaches to regulation that they are taking during the COVID-19 outbreak. There are no plans to review this guidance at the current time.

At the start of 2020, a review of technologies to decontaminate single use personal protective equipment (PPE) was undertaken. UVC was among the technologies assessed as it is used for sterilisation of pathogens in other settings. However, there are no regulatory approvals for UVC in healthcare settings, so HPV was selected for the pilot phase. This pilot found HPV was not effective, so further testing was stood down.

Given the resilience we have built through on-shore production of single use PPE and the piloting of reusable PPE, there are no current plans for further investigative work.

Public Health England are currently reviewing the evidence base on surface transmission of COVID-19 in non-healthcare settings to develop general principles for cleaning and hand hygiene which can be applied to future guidance and the provision of advice.

BEIS has no plans to place additional requirements on manufacturers of hand sanitiser.

COVID-19 risk assessments fall under the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) remit. As each workplace is different, it is for an employer to identify, as part of their risk assessment, how to control COVID-19 transmission. Guidance has been produced by HSE that gives advice and information to employers on how to do such an assessment and manage the risk from COVID-19 in a proportionate manner. Risk assessment - Working safely during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (hse.gov.uk)

Frequent surface cleaning is one of several control measures that can be implemented to manage the transmission risk. Fog, mist, vapour or UV (ultraviolet) treatments may be suitable options to help control the spread of coronavirus and disinfecting a larger space or room when people are not present. Any use of these treatments for these purposes should form part of your COVID-19 risk assessment. Users must be competent and properly trained. HSE provides guidance on its website as to when using these systems may be appropriate. Airborne disinfection does not remove the need for surface cleaning and surfaces that are dirty can reduce the effectiveness of disinfectant applied by airborne dispersion.

HSE and public health bodies in England, Wales and Scotland have agreed joint advice for dutyholders considering using walk-through spraying or misting disinfecting systems to reduce transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19). Spraying people with disinfectants in this way is not recommended under any circumstances (including in a tunnel, cabinet, or chamber). For further information see: Disinfecting using fog, mist and other systems during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic - HSE news

BEIS has worked closely with Health and Safety Executive and Public Health England to ensure that the Safer Working guidance for businesses is based on the most up to date understanding of Covid-19. Guidance is kept under constant review and it is updated accordingly. Businesses should carry out Covid-19 risk assessments and follow the Safer Working guidance.

BEIS has worked closely with Health and Safety Executive and Public Health England to ensure that the Safer Working guidance for businesses is based on the most up to date understanding of Covid-19. Guidance is kept under constant review and it is updated accordingly. Businesses should carry out Covid-19 risk assessments and follow the Safer Working guidance.

BEIS has worked closely with Health and Safety Executive and Public Health England to ensure that the Safer Working guidance for businesses is based on the most up to date understanding of Covid-19. Guidance is kept under constant review and it is updated accordingly. Businesses should carry out Covid-19 risk assessments and follow the Safer Working guidance.

As each is workplace is different, it is for an employer to identify, as part of their risk assessment, how to control COVID-19 transmission. Guidance has been produced by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Public Health England (PHE) and the Health and Safety Executive that gives advice and information to employers on how to do such an assessment and make the workplace COVID-secure.

Frequent surface cleaning is one of several control measures that can be implemented to manage the transmission risk. Guidance from PHE and BEIS advises the use of standard cleaning products for frequently touched surfaces to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Whilst we do not specify particular products, those that have been tested to the EN 14476 standard will be effective against viruses.

HSE’s evidence is that more than 90% of the businesses checked have the right precautions in place or are willing to make necessary changes promptly and without the need for enforcement notices. HSE will continue to take enforcement action where appropriate, but the best use of its time and resource to ensure employers take the right action promptly is often to educate, persuade or require matters to be put right immediately.

As each is workplace is different, it is for an employer to identify, as part of their risk assessment, how to control COVID-19 transmission. Guidance has been produced by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Public Health England (PHE) and the Health and Safety Executive that gives advice and information to employers on how to do such an assessment and make the workplace COVID-secure.

Frequent surface cleaning is one of several control measures that can be implemented to manage the transmission risk. Guidance from PHE and BEIS advises the use of standard cleaning products for frequently touched surfaces to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Whilst we do not specify particular products, those that have been tested to the EN 14476 standard will be effective against viruses.

HSE’s evidence is that more than 90% of the businesses checked have the right precautions in place or are willing to make necessary changes promptly and without the need for enforcement notices. HSE will continue to take enforcement action where appropriate, but the best use of its time and resource to ensure employers take the right action promptly is often to educate, persuade or require matters to be put right immediately.

Disinfectant products containing hazardous substances must be labelled in accordance with the comprehensive labelling requirements in the retained Regulation (EC) 1272/2008 on the classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP Regulation), and where the product has been Authorised under the retained Regulation (EU) No 528/2012 (Biocidal Products Regulation or BPR) there are additional labelling requirements arising from that regulation.

The Advertising Standards Authority has an online complaints page for people to report advertisements that make misleading, harmful or irresponsible claims about COVID-19. The form can be found at: https://www.asa.org.uk/make-a-complaint/quick-report.html.

Furthermore, the Competition and Markets Authority has created a COVID-19 taskforce and set up an online form to enable consumers and business to report any businesses they believe is behaving unfairly during the pandemic. The form can be found at: https://www.coronavirus-business-complaint.service.gov.uk/.

The information received through those exercises is fed into the enforcement activities of those respective bodies and discussed at the Consumer Protection Partnership which coordinates activities.

We always keep the guidance under review. There are twice-weekly meetings with BEIS, the HSE and Public Health England to tackle those issues, and we will certainly take away that specific point.

Hand hygiene and mask wearing are most effective when accompanied by surface disinfection, especially in shared work spaces. Recent changes to the Health and Safety Executive guidance are welcome, but the Secretary of State’s Department’s guidance needs to be radically updated to provide specific guidance on the EN standard of disinfectants needed, and on the frequency of surface disinfection. Can he commit to doing that as a matter of urgency?