The Department has authorised the use of gowns purchased from Clandeboye Agencies Limited during the pandemic. The total contractual price agreed and paid was £107,520,000.

The £8.7 billion of inventory impairment reported in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2020/21 includes:

- £673 million relating to items assessed as not being suitable for any use - the only element of the impairment considered a loss;

- £2,581 million for items not suitable for use within the health and social care sector which may be suitable for other uses and therefore held for future sale or donation;

- £4,701 million reflecting the impairment recognised as a result of fluctuations in the market price of personal protective equipment between the point of purchase and the balance sheet date; and

- £750 million relating to inventory which has an expiry date prior to the expected usage date and is therefore held for resale or donation.

The Department is unable to provide information on which of these categories products supplied by individual contracts were attributed to as this is commercially sensitive.

We are unable to provide the information requested as it is commercially sensitive.

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer to her question of 10 February 2022, UIN 115926.

I note that she has also written to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the Cabinet Secretary on the same issue. A Ministerial reply will be sent in due course.

Items supplied by Ayanda and Pestfix were included among the write-down reported in the Department's annual accounts for 2020-21.

The Government has accepted the Second Permanent Secretary’s general findings in full and is in the course of making changes. Further details will be announced in due course.

I refer the Hon. Member back to the reply I gave to her on 7 February 2022 (Hansard volume 708, from column 695).

The Department does not currently hold the information in the format required.

Due diligence was carried out for all contracts. All offers received a rigorous financial and technical assessment, led by Departmental officials and other Government departments. The Department researched and reported on financial details of companies and background details of company directors and produced reports rating suppliers as red, amber or green.

Departmental records reflect that a link between Baroness Mone and PPE Medpro was clear prior to contracts being awarded.

Pestfix supplied personal protective equipment (PPE) with a value of £169,320,000 which is not currently available for release to the National Health Service due to technical and quality issues. The Department is currently engaged in mediation with Pestfix.

Ayanda supplied PPE with a value of £145,701,240 which is not currently available for release to the NHS due to technical and quality issues. The Department is undertaking a further detailed technical analysis of the product and will consider any commercial options available following conclusion of that review.

Departmental contracts require that it undertakes mediation with its suppliers prior to the commencement of formal legal action, to establish if disputes can be resolved without recourse to litigation.

So far, 3,161,950 million gowns supplied by Clandeboye Agencies Ltd have been provided to the National Health Service. The remaining stock of 22 million items is stored in our network.

We are not aware of any being resold or being put up for resale.

Appointments made by the Department of Health and Social Care are a matter for the Department of Health and Social Care.

This information is published in the Department’s annual report and accounts, available on gov.uk.

Annual Report and Accounts 2019-20 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

The Department’s report and accounts for 2021-22 will be published in due course, in the usual way.

Departmental boards provide strategic leadership for each central government department, as well as advising on/challenging how the department is performing. Each board is chaired by the Secretary of State and includes junior ministers, the permanent secretary and non-executive board members. Non-executives are appointed to government departments from the public, private and voluntary sectors. Their role is to provide advice and bring an external perspective.

A summary of the work of non-executive directors across Government can be found in the Government Lead Non-Executive's annual report, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-lead-non-executives-annual-report-2019-to-2020

Schools can access the national voucher scheme as of Tuesday 31 March. This scheme allows schools to order a single voucher to the value of £15 each week for every child eligible for benefits-related free school meals who is not attending school, set a weekly £15 rolling voucher, or combine funding where a family has more than one child eligible. Schools will not have to pay for these vouchers as the costs for this scheme will be picked up centrally by the Department for Education.

Schools can also continue with a local solution to supporting pupils eligible for free school meals.

We understand that other approaches may mean that schools incur additional expenses. Guidance is available on how we will compensate schools who incur these additional costs, including prior to the introduction of the national voucher scheme, in providing free school meals or vouchers to pupils affected by COVID-19:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools/school-funding-exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-19-for-the-period-march-to-july-2020.

Further guidance is available at the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools.

Revenue expenditure:

Both before and after opening, maths schools receive core funding in line with other new post-16 schools. Maths schools receive some additional funding in return for delivering key aspects of the maths school model, which includes significant outreach work with teachers and students in schools in their surrounding areas to increase both maths A level participation and maths GCSE and A level attainment. Details are available here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/822102/20190723_-_Proposer_guidance_-_maths_schools_-_update.pdf.

In order to serve the whole of the south west, Exeter Mathematics School also provides boarding accommodation for a small number of students and receives a residential accommodation grant in order for students from financially disadvantaged/low income backgrounds who live too far away for a daily commute to attend.

All core and additional revenue expenditure is included in the table above.

The Department publishes overall capital costs for all free schools, including maths schools on GOV.UK once all works are completed and costs are finalised. Given that these can be large and complex projects, this can take some time between first opening and publication. Additional finalised capital costs for individual free schools and maths schools will be published in due course. Final capital costs are published here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/863262/Capital_Funding_for_Free_Schools__UTCs_and_Studio__Schools_.ods.

The information is not held centrally. Core funding for children’s services, including funding for placing looked-after children, is un-ring-fenced and part of the wider local government finance settlement. It is for local authorities to decide how best to spend the funding to meet their local needs, priorities and statutory responsibilities, including for children’s social care.

The local government settlement for 2020-21 set out proposals to increase local government resources by 4.4% above inflation, which is the largest increase in spending power in almost a decade. Under these proposals, core spending power will rise from £46.2 billion in 2019-20 to £49.1 billion in 2020-21.

We recognise the demand pressures on children’s social care. The government is providing local authorities with an additional £1 billion for adult and children’s social care in every year of this Parliament.

The information is not held centrally. Core funding for children’s services, including funding for placing looked-after children, is un-ring-fenced and part of the wider local government finance settlement. It is for local authorities to decide how best to spend the funding to meet their local needs, priorities and statutory responsibilities, including for children’s social care.

The local government settlement for 2020-21 set out proposals to increase local government resources by 4.4% above inflation, which is the largest increase in spending power in almost a decade. Under these proposals, core spending power will rise from £46.2 billion in 2019-20 to £49.1 billion in 2020-21.

We recognise the demand pressures on children’s social care. The government is providing local authorities with an additional £1 billion for adult and children’s social care in every year of this Parliament.

In 2013/14, the base rate of funding for 16-19 education was £4,000. Using the most recent GDP deflators to calculate the value of this rate at 2019-20 prices produces a figure of £4,435.

We are investing an extra £400 million in 16 to 19 education in 2020-21 to ensure we are building the skills that our country needs. This is the biggest injection of new money into 16 to 19 education in a single year since 2010, with funding increasing faster for 16 to 19 education than in 5 to 16 schooling. This includes a 4.7% increase in the base rate to £4,188. With other funding announced, such as an additional £120 million of funding for high cost and high value subjects and £35 million to support students with Maths and English GCSE retakes, this represents an increase of around 7% in overall 16 to 19 funding.

Funding for future years beyond 2020-21 will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.

The additional £1 billion grant for adults and children’s social care, and the continuing £410 million social care grant, can be used flexibly by local authorities to deliver both adults and children's social care based on local priorities.

Local councils understand the needs of their communities’ best and it is important that they have the freedom and flexibility to manage those needs.

The current 16 to 19 funding system, including the base rate arrangement, was introduced in 2013. The 16 to 19 base rate did not exist before this so it is not possible to provide a 2009-10 base rate at 2020-21 prices.

The Department is committed to tackling entrenched underperformance in schools wherever it exists.

Last September, following confirmation of the biggest funding boost for schools in a decade, totaling an additional £14 billion over three years, the Department announced that we will provide more support for persistently underperforming schools from high-performing, experienced school leaders. These mechanisms are now being put in place.

We also confirmed that we would work with Ofsted so that it can provide more detailed analysis on areas of improvement for these schools. We have been doing so and will be confirming details in due course. This announcement can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-drive-to-continue-boosting-standards-in-schools.

On 10 January, the Department also launched a public consultation on removing the exemption from routine inspection for schools previously rated outstanding by Ofsted. The aim is to lift the exemption from September 2020, subject to the consultation outcome and parliamentary approval. Ending the exemption will mean all parents have up to date information about every school and can be confident that their children’s schools are continuing to deliver the best education. The Department will provide additional funding for these inspections for 2020-21, and funding for subsequent years will be determined through the forthcoming Spending Review.

The press release can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/raising-expectations-of-children-and-parents-high-standards-for-teachers-and-tackling-bad-behaviour-how-schools-in-left-behind-areas-can-improve.