The NHS coronavirus contact tracing app won’t work properly until October, it has emerged today.
Officials first promised the app would be ready to roll-out across Britain in mid-May, after it was trialled on the Isle of Wight.
But business minister Nadhim Zahawi last night revealed it won’t go live until the end of the month, roughly six weeks after it was originally due.
Critics have claimed the development of the app – designed to help curb the spread of coronavirus in Britain – has been ‘chaotic’.
Concerns were raised almost from day one amid fears the app could drain people’s phone batteries and concerns it will leave the elderly excluded.
Test and trace systems were launched in England and Scotland last week, but without the app due to delays.
Mr Zahawi said on BBC Question Time last night that the app, which had been trialled in the Isle of Wight, would be in place ‘this month’, adding that it would be rolled out when it is ‘robust’.
But Tony Prestedge, chief operating officer for the contact tracing system, is said to have told employees it would be ‘imperfect and clunky’.
In a May 27 video to staff, obtained by The Guardian, Mr Prestedge said: ‘I am sure when Dido [Harding, the NHS chief overseeing the programme] announces this service later she will make clear that it is an imperfect service at launch that we will improve over time and make it world-class by the time that we are moving towards the September or October time.’
Business Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said on BBC Question Time last night that the app, which had been trialled in the Isle of Wight, would be in place ‘this month’, adding that it would be rolled out when it is ‘robust’
But major questions remain over when the NHSX coronavirus app will be made available nationwide. Mr Hancock originally said it would be ‘mid-May’ but Downing Street said today it will be in the ‘coming weeks’
The NHS Test and Trace programme launched last week but ministers are under pressure after failing to reveal how many people have so far been contacted
Mr Prestedge added: ‘We know it will be imperfect, we know it will be clunky but we ask you to help us improve the service.’
He added that he expected the scheme to be running for two years.
The video was recorded the day before the scheme was launched by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Mr Zahawi last night said he could not give an ‘exact date’ for when the app would be rolled out, because ‘it would be wrong for [him] to do so’.
Biologist Hugh Pennington, also on Question Time yesterday, said the tracing app would be essential before major lifting of lockdown.
‘It’s very important to have the contact-tracing up and running before we really do any massive release on lockdown, what’s happened so far is essentially pretty trivial chipping away on lockdown, and we’ll see if that has any significant effect on the R number,’ he said.
The programme requires anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 to provide phone numbers and email addresses of people they have been in close contact with.
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘The new NHS test and trace service is up and running and is helping save lives.
Anyone in this country can now book a test and the majority who book a test get the results back within a day.
‘We have over 25,000 contact tracers in place, who have all been trained and are fully supported by public health experts.’
However, three contact tracers told the Daily Mail earlier this week that they had not made a single call.
Another claimed she had spent much of her time reupholstering a chair as she had so little to do.
On Wednesday the Prime Minister said it has already resulted in ‘thousands’ of people self-quarantining who would not otherwise have done so.
But the Government has refused to publish more detailed figures, saying that Ministers wanted to be sure they were reliable.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs on May 20 the test and trace operation would be ‘world-beating’.
Responding to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Johnson said: ‘He has heard that we have growing confidence that we will have a test, track and trace operation that will be world-beating, and yes, it will be in place by 1 June.’
The Guardian reports that Mr Prestedge said he expected the test and trace programme to run for two years.
NHS England’s test and trace system, which is being lead by Baroness Dido Harding, is one of the key measures introduced to help the return to something approaching normality.
It relies on identifying people who have been in contact with a positive case and getting them to self-isolate.
Earlier this week Mr Johnson rejected Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s claim that the system is not yet fully operational.
Mr Prestedge’s comments came in a video that was recorded the day before the scheme was launched by Health Secretary Matt Hancock (pictured)
During Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said: ‘Two weeks ago today at the despatch box the Prime Minister promised that we will have a test, track and trace operation that will be ‘world-beating and yes it will be in place by June 1’.
‘But it isn’t. And a critical element – the ability of local authorities to respond to local spikes – is missing.’
Mr Johnson said the Labour leader was ‘casting aspersions on the efforts’ of those involved in setting up the programme, telling MPs that 40,000 people were involved in it.
‘I’m afraid he’s casting aspersions on the efforts of tens of thousands of people who have set up a test, track and trace system in this country from a standing start,’ the Prime Minister said.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘The new NHS Test and Trace service is up and running and is helping save lives.
‘Anyone in this country can now book a test and the majority who book a test get the results back within a day.
‘We have over 25,000 contact tracers in place, who have all been trained and are fully supported in their work by public health experts.’