UK government forms for medical and emergency procurement

The UK government has no database of UK manufacturers.

They have two forms to show interest in providing medical or emergency goods and services.

• The first is general including personal protective equipment like face masks
• The second is for ventilators. I guess that manufacturing quickly in the UK is what they're most interested in; there is a "where" box next to each item on the second form.

Goods and Services Assistance: COVID-19 - smartsurvey.co.uk/s/l5b32s or

bit.ly/covidhelpuk

GOODS

• Food
• Hotel Rooms for any use
• Hotel Rooms for lodging
• Manufacturing equipment
• Medical Equipment -
• PPE Medical Equipment -
• Testing equipment Medical Equipment -
• Other Office space for any use
• Warehouse/Industrial space
• Other (please provide a description of these goods):

SERVICES

• Community Support
• Consultancy for Medical Equipment
• Design Consultancy - other
• Construction expertise
• Engineering expertise
• IT services expertise
• Manufacturing expertise
• Medical expertise
• Project management / procurement expertise
• Social Care
• Transport - logistics or courier
• Transport - people
• Other (please provide a description of these services)

VENTILATOR PARTS

https://ventilator.herokuapp.com/ - form; https://engineersassemble.tribe.so/ - end-product spec. 

GOODS

• Do you already produce regulated ventilators that are used in a UK clinical setting i.e. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), approved with a CE mark?
• Have you made parts or systems for ventilators:
• for human use in clinical setting? Yes No
• for use in veterinary setting? Yes No
• use in any other setting? Yes No If you answered yes to any of the above, please provide further details. Please indicate whether you design, manufacture or supply any of the following medical devices or component parts and, if so, where.

Category: Design / Manufacture / Supply / Location

• Air Compressors / Pumps
• Bellows
• Self-inflating bags
• Gas mixing valves
• Pressure Regulators
• Flow Control valves
• Solenoid valves
• Pressure relief valves
• Check valves / one-way valves
• Industrial Automation components (Safety Relays, PLCs)
• Power Supplies
• Electric Motors, and motor controllers
• Linear actuators and controllers
• Tubing and fittings
• Pressure Sensors and Indicators
• Oxygen Sensors and Indicators
• Flow Sensors and Indicators
• Manometers
• Heat and moisture exchanging filters (HMEFs)
• Air Filter, HEPA Filters

SERVICES

6. Please indicate in

• which of the following activities your organisation has relevant skills,
• which is your specialism, and
• where these activities take place.

Category: Relevant skills / Specialism / Location

• Design / specification
• Rapid prototyping
• Manufacturing (manual)
• Manufacturing (automated)
• Machine Shops/sheet metal/tool manufacture
• Pneumatic part manufacturers/suppliers
• Contract/Product Assembly
• Certification/regulation/testing
• Logistics
• Medical Training

7. Please indicate which enabling resources are you able to provide in service of this initiative.

• Suitable space
• Equipment
• Trained personnel
• Other

theengineer.co.uk/uk-government-manufacturers-ventilators-nhs/ - posts in The Engineer independent.co.uk/news/business/coronavirus-ventilators-uk-new-dyson-order-government-shortage-nhs-a9426561.html - post in The Independent mention a GTech contract and that GTech will make the plans open source. Headlines seem to go to party donor Dyson instead.
gtech.co.uk/ventilators
This one from a college doesn't mention a manufacturer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IMaYFNB9tA&feature=emb_rel_end There is also an open source design project in Ireland which I don't understand - it's about slack channels and github for those qualified to help.

https://www.ventilatorchallengeuk.com/
has been promised orders

Party donor James Dyson has been promised orders, with no web page findable yet
https://hexus.net/ce/news/general/141073-everything-know-dyson-covent-ventilator/

UK Journalists paid by government to promote Chinese goods out of UK taxes

A government programme paid over £550 each in subsidised trips to sixty journalists & buyers every six months to report on shoes and clothes made overseas for London Fashion Week. MPs with shoe factories in their constituencies - Peter Bone in Wellingborough and Patricia Hewitt in Leicester East - did not write a single letter to protest..

Peter Bone MP is an accountant and MP for Wellingborough. His constituency has more shoe factories in it than anywhere else in the UK, but when the Sanders and Sanders factory was running-up to closure last year he showed no sign of knowing that the department for Business Innovation and Skills was subsidising the competition by sending buyers and journalists to report on glossy shows of Chinese shoes such as Terra Plana at London Fashion Week. If he did know that his constituents were paying taxes towards putting themselves out of work, he certainly didn't write a letter about it to the UK Trade and Investment, a ministerial agency which funds this joint scheme with London Development Agency. The department's only correspondence with him or the now-closed factory was a series of email tip-offs about export opportunities, such as overseas trade shows. They sent fifteen over about four years.Patricia Hewitt MP is MP for Leicester West, another shoemaking area with an unemployment rate of 13.8% . Equity Shoes was a major local employer until closure in January 2009, with a recent payroll of 200 and a 100 at closure. Like Sanders, it was a tenacious company - Sanders was a family trust and Equity was a staff co-op, so neither closed lightly. Patricia Hewitt had every reason to know about the scheme to put her constituents out of work because she had to sign for it: she was secretary of state for trade and industry (now the department for Business Innovation and Skills) between 2001 and 2005. She could have picked-up the phone during any of those years and asked

"why are we subsidising the competition?".

It is not revealed what she said in the office when she was minister, but a recent freedom of information act request that she did not write a single letter on the subject of Equity Shoes to the department between 2005 and the end of January 2010, even after being tipped-off in November that the question was going being asked.

"We have completed a search of our electronic information management systems and we do not have any record of UK Trade & Investment having received letters from the MPs for Leicester or Rushden on the subject of UK shoe manufacturers. "

Published freedom of information requests & replies on Whatdotheyknow.com describe a scheme that UK Trade and Investment call the International Buyers Programme, funded over roughly four years and still in place.

"since September 2005, UK Trade & Investment have paid British Fashion Council £215,555. This funding is for the international buyers programme for London Fashion week. The aim of the programme is to bring the most significant and influential buyers and press to London Fashion week each season."

London Development Agency quotes "£120k more than budgeted for 2008/9 was spent on LFW support as funding was allocated to support the International Guest Programme to cover reduced funding from UKTI", but it still got "UKTI support during 2008/09" of £33,000. Some of the money may be counted twice as British Fashion Council is also sponsored by the Mayfair Hotel and British Airways "The official airline of London Fashion Week", which are both likely to have catered for these expenses-paid trips: ""The LFW International Guest Programme, supported jointly by LDA and UKTI, saw 60 key, targeted international press and buyers assisted in their visits to LFW, through flight subsidies and accommodation. These visitors are given welcome packs and are accompanied through their stay as they visit the exhibition, catwalk shows and showrooms. Feedback on media coverage generated and orders placed is collected after their visits."

Did the money achieve anything good?

There are attempts to quote outputs on the projects report to the London Development Agency, but the list omits manufacturers. The only figures broken down in any detail are figures of media coverage, reported by an agency paid for by British Fashion Council. And there are anecdotal quotes. It's not often that Vogue is quoted on Indymedia but we may even add to the list of outputs by repeating this quote:

""The Season London Shone" wrote US Vogue's Sarah Mower. "Who'd have thought that London would shine at its brightest during a crisis. London's Designers squared up to the fall with an exceptional out-flowing of creativity and polish ... that made Fall 2009 this city's most dazzling performance for years."

...ends. Sources:
"Record Figures for London Fashion Week"
 http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/news_details.aspx?ID=86

"AGREEMENT FOR FUNDING RELATING TO CREATIVE
SECTOR SUPPORT - DESIGNER FASHION Parties: LDA / BFC
Ref: 23300 QUARTERLY REPORT 2008/9: Q3&4 [biannual update]"
 http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/london_fashion_week_biannual_upd#comment-7716

"Consultation re closed UK shoe factories" information request and reply on Whatdotheyknow.com:
 http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/consultation_re_closed_uk_shoe_f_2#comment-8530

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicester_West

Pictures of Equity Shoes buildings post closure:
 http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=40786
software too.

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