The former chief executive of TalkTalk, who was at the helm of the company when it was hit by an £80 million cyber attack in 2015, will lead the UK’s test and trace scheme to tackle the coronavirus, set to launch tomorrow. Baroness Dido Harding of Winscombe, 53, was raised on a Somerset pig farm … Read more
Boris Johnson insists he has ‘full confidence’ in Baroness Dido Harding despite continued failures of coronavirus test and trace regime she runs amid Tory calls for her to QUIT NHS Test and Trace service was supposed to be key to controlling the disease But the system last week hit a record low, prompting demands for … Read more
Scepticism is a peculiarly British trait. The idea that we might actually be able to do something well seems too absurd to contemplate. Before the 2012 Olympics, the general view was it was all going to be a disaster: the stadiums would be late; the Tube drivers would go on strike; the opening ceremony would … Read more
Alastair Flanagan’s journey to work takes him from a rambling farmhouse near the Chiltern Hills to a state-of-the-art office block overlooking a garden square in London’s Marylebone. The striking building is UK headquarters of the Boston Consulting Group, one of the world’s most prestigious — not to mention expensive — management consultancy firms. Flanagan is … Read more
Boris Johnson admits his government failed on Test and Trace and the system ‘needs improvement’ with just one-in-seven getting results in a day and fewer than 60% of contacts found Boris Johnson said Test and Trace ‘needs improvement’ after performance slump Fewer than six-in-ten contacts are now tracked down, well below the 80% target And … Read more
Number 10 has admitted Britain’s beleaguered Test and Trace ‘must improve’ after it emerged more than 100,000 potential coronavirus patients were missed by the scheme last week. Damning statistics published by the Government today showed the system only tracked down 59 per cent of close contacts of people who tested positive for the virus in the … Read more
Ministers are facing a High Court challenge over the awarding of lucrative contracts under the Operation Moonshot mass testing programme – which was hailed by Boris Johnson as the way to return to normal life. The Good Law Project, which seeks to enforce government accountability, is seeking a judicial review, claiming the contracts were unlawful because … Read more
Michael Gove was forced to defend police being given personal data through the NHS Test and Trace system amid a furious privacy row yesterday. Experts and public health officials reacted with anger when it emerged police had been given powers to request details of people who had been told to self-isolate in England. The agreement … Read more
NHS Test and Trace boss Dido Harding has admitted the programme is not a ‘silver bullet’ for solving the coronavirus crisis as Michael Gove defended giving police access to self-isolation data. Baroness Harding said the £12 billion programme is ‘undoubtedly a very important’ part of the Government’s efforts to tackle the spread of infection. But she … Read more
The Government’s Test and Trace system has failed to reach nearly a quarter of a million close contacts of people who have tested positive for coronavirus, new analysis has found. Private firms Serco and Sitel failed to get in touch with 245,481 contacts in England either online or from call centres over four months – … Read more