To ask the Minister of Health (i) how much Personal Protective Equipment is stored in Health and Social Care facilities; (ii) how much is being stored in private/rented storage; and (iii) what is the cost of such storage.

Due to the volumes of PPE required, particularly during the current Covid-19 pandemic, it has been necessary for Health and Social Care (HSC) organisations to store goods in both health owned premises as well as commercially rented property. While there has been an increase in the use of commercially rented storage facilities, HSC organisations also rent commercial premises for storage as part of normal business. Therefore, the costs presented below include normal business costs as well as those costs incurred specifically as a result of Covid-19.

Stock in hand of PPE is currently 368 million items of PPE of which 97% is centrally stored for onward distribution..

The split of storage of PPE and commercial cost of storage is as follows:

*includes PPE stored in business as usual properties

** includes rates costs where applicable/known

*** Southern Trust is currently in the process of moving all PPE stocks to commercial storage as a temporary measure