Michael Gove has issued an apology to a company which said it did not receive a reply from the Government having offered to procure ventilators for the NHS.
An NHS supplier in Nantwich said that in the international market it had found 25,000 ventilators which it could have procured for the Government.
However, the supplier said that having asked the Government if it wanted the ventilators, it did not get a reply.
Mr Gove said: “I’m very sorry if that company says that it didn’t get a reply, I’ll investigate as soon as I’ve stopped talking to you (Andrew Marr).
“It is the case that for companies that have got in touch with the Government those offers of help have been forwarded to the relevant people in the NHS and in other aspects of Government in order to make sure we secure those supplies.
“If that company wants to get in touch directly with me, we’ll investigate, because there have been some cases where people had hoped they might be able to help, but in fact the material that they produce has not met the NHS specifications, it’s not what’s required in order to save lives, but we have been following up every single lead presented to us.”
Mr Gove also said there was “communication confusion” after the Government missed the deadline to join an EU scheme to get extra ventilators.
Downing Street earlier this week said the UK had decided to pursue its own scheme rather than joining the EU’s procurement scheme.
However, a No 10 spokesman explained that officials did not get emails inviting the UK to join and it could join future schemes.
Speaking on the BBC’s Marr programme, Mr Gove said: “There was some confusion over our involvement in that scheme, but I’ve talked to senior figures in the NHS and they’ve reassured me that there is nothing that we can’t do as an independent nation that being part of that scheme would have allowed us to do.”
Asked whether an email was received by the Government, he said: “There was some communication confusion, I don’t know all the details of that, but I do know having talked to senior figures in the NHS that there’s nothing that participating in that scheme would have allowed us to do that we have not been able to do ourselves.”
Asked if the government had been observing its own coronavirus guidance after ministers developed symptoms, Mr Gove told the BBC’s Andrew Marr: “We’ve been doing everything we can to observe that advice and it’s certainly the case that within the House of Commons people were seeking to maintain an appropriate distance from one another.”
He highlighted that Parliament was in recess and that the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, would be reviewing “the best way of making sure that politicians remain accountable but at the same time that we respect the rules that limit the spread of disease”.
Michael Gove said that a “walk of up to an hour” would be appropriate for most people as their daily exercise during the lockdown.
“Well, obviously it depends on each individual’s fitness,” he told BBC’s Marr programme.
“But I would have thought that for most a walk of up to an hour, or a run of 30 minutes, or a cycle ride between that, depending on their level of fitness, is appropriate.”
Mr Gove told BBC’s Andrew Marr that the public must prepare for a “significant period” of lockdown.
“Everyone is making a sacrifice and I appreciate the scale of that sacrifice,” he said.
“But the reason all of us are making these sacrifices is because all of us will have people whom we love who are at risk from this virus.
“I can’t make an accurate prediction, but everyone does have to prepare for a significant period when these measures are still in place.”
Michael Gove has said the peak of the coronavirus is dependent on people’s actions.
Speaking on the BBC’s Marr programme, the Cabinet Office minister said there is no fixed point for when a peak for the virus will be.
Asked when that point could be reached, he said: “It’s difficult to know precisely, it depends on the action that all of us take.
“If we practice the social distancing measures, if we follow the rules that the Government has outlined, if we follow that good scientific advice, then we can delay the infection rate and that gives our NHS the chance to become more resilient.
“So, the date of the peak depends on all of our behaviour. It’s not a fixed point, a date in the calendar like Easter, it is something that all of us can affect by our actions.”
