The biggest problems with the £37bn NHS Test and Trace system
MPs say programme has been expensive flop that ‘failed’ to stop the spread
NHS Test and Trace has proven to be an “eye-watering” waste of taxpayers’ money, the government spending watchdog has concluded.
A newly published Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report – described as “excoriating” by The Telegraph – said that despite £37bn of funding, the scheme “failed to deliver on its central promise of averting another lockdown”.
The scheme that Boris Johnson hailed as “world-beating” did not achieves its goal to “help break chains of Covid-19 transmission and enable people to return towards a more normal way of life”, the MPs wrote.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
‘Paid to watch Netflix’
The committee found that a hefty chunk of the funding pumped into Test and Trace – equal to almost a fifth of the entire 2020-21 NHS England budget – was used to hire more than 2,000 management consultants on an average rate of more than £1,000 a day. Some have been paid more than £6,600 a day.
Spending on such hirings had got “out of hand”, the report suggested. Despite pledges to reduce dependency on management consultants, the project employed more in April 2021 than in December 2020.
Contact centre staff have also been underutilised, said the MPs, with the proportion of tracers who were working ranging from just 11% to a maximum of 49%.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Call handlers at NHS Test and Trace told the BBC last year that they were effectively being paid to “watch Netflix” at home.
Mystery tests
What The Guardian described as the “damning” report also noted that last Christmas, “when there appeared to be spare laboratory capacity and Covid-19 cases were rising”, only 17% of people received coronavirus test results within 24 hours.
Government scientists advised that, for a test and trace system to be effective, no more than 48 hours should pass between identifying a positive case and their contacts going into self-isolation. Yet the less ambition NHS Test and Trace target of reaching 80% of contacts within 72 hours was not met until January.
And between November 2020 and April 2021, the average utilisation of labs testing for Covid was just 45%, the report said.
Almost 700m at-home lateral flow tests had also been distributed by NHS Test and Trace as of the end of May, but only 14% of the results were registered online, despite such data being crucial in tracking the spread.
“It is not clear what benefit the remaining 595m tests have secured,” the committee said.
The report also described uptake of test and trace services as “variable”, noted ITV. According to the report, “only a minority of people experiencing Covid-19 symptoms get a test”.
Saving lives?
Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said the report has “highlighted a great many shortcomings in the NHS Test & Trace service”, according to the Science Media Centre organisation.
He noted that Tory peer Dido Harding, who led the scheme until May this year, had “previously boasted that the operation was the size of Tesco”, without “conceding that the supermarket chain actually works”.
But Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, argued that NHS Test and Trace is “saving lives every day”.
Major improvements had been made “in testing capacity, turnaround times and speed and reach of contact tracing – and improved collaboration with local authorities”, she said, adding: “NHS Test and Trace has played an essential role in combating this pandemic.”
A government spokesperson said that “to date, over 323m tests have been delivered and almost 20m people contacted who could otherwise have unknowingly transmitted the virus”.
“We have rightly drawn on the extensive expertise of a number of public and private sector partners who have been invaluable in helping us tackle the virus,” the spokesperson continued.
"We have built a testing network from scratch that can process millions of tests a day – more than any European country – providing a free LFD or PCR test to anybody who needs one.”
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
5 timely cartoons about climate change denial
Cartoons Artists take on textbook trouble, bizarre beliefs, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Kris Kristofferson: the free-spirited country music star who studied at Oxford
In the Spotlight The songwriter, singer and film-star has died aged 88
By The Week UK Published
-
The Chagos agreement explained
In Depth Ceding the islands to Mauritius could allow China to gain foothold in the Indo-Pacific, experts have warned
By The Week UK Published
-
Bob Woodward's War: the explosive Trump revelations
In the spotlight Nobody can beat Watergate veteran at 'getting the story of the White House from the inside'
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Trump kept up with Putin, sent Covid tests, book says
Speed Read The revelation comes courtesy of a new book by Bob Woodward
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
'The federal government's response to the latest surge has been tepid at best'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Is Britain about to 'boil over'?
Today's Big Question A message shared across far-right groups listed more than 30 potential targets for violence in the UK today
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
UK's Starmer slams 'far-right thuggery' at riots
Speed Read The anti-immigrant violence was spurred by false rumors that the suspect in the Southport knife attack was an immigrant
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Biden tests positive for Covid in fresh blow to campaign
Speed Read The president said he would consider dropping out of the race if presented with a "medical condition"
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
The Tamils stranded on 'secretive' British island in Indian Ocean
Under the Radar Migrants 'unlawfully detained' since 2021 shipwreck on UK-controlled Diego Garcia, site of important US military base
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published