Respirator masks that fitted Black medical staff better during the pandemic were purchased in ‘much smaller’ quantities, the Covid inquiry has heard.

Chris Wormald, permanent secretary to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) since 2016, confirmed the department had stocked lower levels of personal protective equipment (PPE) suitable for Black staff working in healthcare, and that little planning had been done to consider the equality of PPE provisions. It raises the possibility that staff from Black and Asian backgrounds, who make up a disproportionately large amount of the NHS workforce, may have been harder hit by frontline PPE shortages.

Asked whether his own departmental briefing papers in July 2020 reported that “respirators – which have been provided for – frequently fitted white faces” but those “better for Black staff were purchased in much smaller quantity,” Wormwald agreed.

“Yes, that is the finding that the department found during the pandemic,” he said.

Speaking on Monday, Wormald also agreed that there had been “no provision for that in… pre-pandemic planning”.

During the pandemic, Black and Brown people were disproportionately impacted by coronavirus: they were more likely than white people to be working in frontline jobs and living in cramped conditions, with higher levels of deprivation and worse health.

Clara Swinson, director general of the DHSC and chair of the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Programme (PIPP) Board, also told the inquiry: “There were not enough different types of face masks.”

The issue of inadequate masks is also raised in a secret document dated September 2020 and uncovered by openDemocracy last week, stating that there was “insufficient data available to consider equality issues around the PPE provision” and that “a retrospective equality impact assessment is now being undertaken and will help address these concerns”. It is not known if this was completed.

The inquiry heard last week that the government had not considered health inequalities – like structural racism – in any of its emergency planning documents.

Wormald also claimed that the UK had never “nationally run out of PPE”, which prompted an interjection from the inquiry chair that “I think a lot of medics would be surprised at your comment”.

“The stockpile that we had built up was useful in the pandemic,” said Wormald. “Was it big enough for the pandemic that we had? It would have been much better were it to have been larger.”

Wormald and Swimson spoke after the inquiry heard evidence from former prime minister David Cameron. All had been called to give evidence in Module 1, which is seeking to explore the UK’s preparedness for the pandemic.

The inquiry continues.