Decades

• The Buckle, Inc. (NYSE: BKE) announced today that total net sales for the 5-week fiscal month ended July 4, 2020 increased 26.8 percent to $94.8 million from net sales of $74.8 million for the prior year 5-week fiscal month ended July 6, 2019.
• Net sales for the 22-week fiscal period ended July 4, 2020 decreased 22.6 percent to $261.4 million from net sales of $337.6 million for the prior year 22-week fiscal period ended July 6, 2019.
• As previously announced, Buckle temporarily closed all brick and mortar stores due to the COVID-19 pandemic beginning March 18, 2020.
• The Company began the process of reopening certain stores the week of April 26, 2020, following state and local reopening guidelines.

COMMONS

Committee demands detailed plan for PPE from DHSC within 2 months, ahead of potential second Covid wave

In a report published today, Tuesday 7 July 2020, the Public Accounts Committee warns that Government does not have either a clear understanding of the equipment needed for clinical and care workers, or how to distribute it – particularly in the more fragmented care sector.  

Personal protective equipment shortages

• The Committee is extremely concerned by widely reported shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) for clinical and care workers during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and says Government is still not treating this with sufficient urgency.It is absolutely vital that the same problems do not happen again in the event of a second wave, but uncertainty still prevails around future provision of local PPE across the health and social care sectors.
• Within two months of this report the Committee expects the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) to clarify its governance arrangements and outline when it expects to have a predictable supply of stock and ready access to PPE supply within the NHS and care sectors.
• This should include detail on the roles and responsibilities for the procurement and distribution of personal protective equipment across NHS and social care settings.

'The NHS needs a plan'

• The Committee says the NHS now needs a coherent plan for how it will function after the peak of the COVID-19 crisis.The crisis cannot be used as an excuse not to address long-standing issues, highlighted in previous PAC reports, such as workforce shortages, coherent and aligned capital investment strategies, and tackling trust deficits.
• As part of the preparation for COVID-19 to protect the NHS and save lives the Government provided significant additional funding to the NHS, including writing off 13.4bn of loans.
• But this, and funding for specific staffing and other support, do not address the underlying issues of the NHS financial sustainability the PAC has been highlighting for years alongside reports on the increasingly poor performance against waiting times standards for A&E and cancer, and on the growing waiting lists for elective treatments.

Failure to devise a capital strategy

• In 2018-19 all NHS trusts in England were together running a combined net deficit of 827 million.
• The long-term failure to devise a capital strategy to address this was extended when the comprehensive 2019 Spending Review was postponed, to focus on exiting the EU.
• The Committee says DHSC and NHS England & NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) must now identify a capital strategy that clearly sets out expectations on how backlog maintenance costs will be addressed.
• There is a similar long-term failure to publish a people plan, and continued lack of long-term investment in people and training, to address the 40,000 nursing vacancies and 9,000 vacancies for medical staff in the NHS.

The Committee says

Chair's comments

• Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Committee, said: The Government conducted a large pandemic practice exercise in 2016 but failed to prepare.
• There is no room and must be zero tolerance for allowing the underlying funding problems to continue.
• The Government conducted a large pandemic practice exercise in 2016 but failed to prepare.
• There must be total focus now on where the problems were in procurement and supply in the first wave, and on eradicating them.

Conclusions and recommendations 

COMMONS

Committee demands detailed plan for PPE from DHSC within 2 months, ahead of potential second Covid wave

In a report published today, Tuesday 7 July 2020, the Public Accounts Committee warns that Government does not have either a clear understanding of the equipment needed for clinical and care workers, or how to distribute it – particularly in the more fragmented care sector.  

Personal protective equipment shortages

• The Committee is extremely concerned by widely reported shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) for clinical and care workers during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and says Government is still not treating this with sufficient urgency.It is absolutely vital that the same problems do not happen again in the event of a second wave, but uncertainty still prevails around future provision of local PPE across the health and social care sectors.
• Within two months of this report the Committee expects the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) to clarify its governance arrangements and outline when it expects to have a predictable supply of stock and ready access to PPE supply within the NHS and care sectors.
• This should include detail on the roles and responsibilities for the procurement and distribution of personal protective equipment across NHS and social care settings.

'The NHS needs a plan'

• The Committee says the NHS now needs a coherent plan for how it will function after the peak of the COVID-19 crisis.The crisis cannot be used as an excuse not to address long-standing issues, highlighted in previous PAC reports, such as workforce shortages, coherent and aligned capital investment strategies, and tackling trust deficits.
• As part of the preparation for COVID-19 to protect the NHS and save lives the Government provided significant additional funding to the NHS, including writing off 13.4bn of loans.
• But this, and funding for specific staffing and other support, do not address the underlying issues of the NHS financial sustainability the PAC has been highlighting for years alongside reports on the increasingly poor performance against waiting times standards for A&E and cancer, and on the growing waiting lists for elective treatments.

Failure to devise a capital strategy

• In 2018-19 all NHS trusts in England were together running a combined net deficit of 827 million.
• The long-term failure to devise a capital strategy to address this was extended when the comprehensive 2019 Spending Review was postponed, to focus on exiting the EU.
• The Committee says DHSC and NHS England & NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) must now identify a capital strategy that clearly sets out expectations on how backlog maintenance costs will be addressed.
• There is a similar long-term failure to publish a people plan, and continued lack of long-term investment in people and training, to address the 40,000 nursing vacancies and 9,000 vacancies for medical staff in the NHS.

The Committee says

Chair's comments

• Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Committee, said: The Government conducted a large pandemic practice exercise in 2016 but failed to prepare.
• There is no room and must be zero tolerance for allowing the underlying funding problems to continue.
• The Government conducted a large pandemic practice exercise in 2016 but failed to prepare.
• There must be total focus now on where the problems were in procurement and supply in the first wave, and on eradicating them.

Conclusions and recommendations 

• The EU Environment Sub-Committee questions Defras Secretary of State George Eustice on his Departments preparations for the end of the transition period and priorities for the UK-EU future relationship negotiations.
• Rt Hon George Eustice MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
  The Committee has been examining a number of Defras policy areas that either need to be resolved in the UK-EU future relationship negotiations, or need to be implemented before the end of the Brexit transition period.
• Members will be asking the Secretary of State about:
  Possible ways forward for the fisheries negotiations, particularly in relation to quota allocations