BACKLASH AS POLICE GET TEST DATA
Privacy fears after ministers hand over users’ details
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 between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the National Police Chiefs’ Council was revealed as Test and Trace chief Dido Harding admitted the system was ‘not a silver bullet’ to tackle coronavirus.
Experts said sharing data with police would deter people from engaging with the system. University College London professor of health psychology, Susan Michie, said the policy, revealed by the Health Service Journal, would ‘further cause distrust in the Government which is a massive problem in terms of adherence to restrictions’.
Chief executive of charity Privacy International Gus Hosein added: ‘Put simply, we don’t want people to be afraid to have an app, get a test, share contact details – key steps to combating a pandemic. The walls around this data must be greater than any
‘Test and Trace has never been a silver bullet’
thing ever before in British history.’ Mr Gove said the data would be shared on a ‘case-by- case basis’, and the police were operating in a ‘very proportionate way.’
The Cabinet Office minister told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘I think that, actually, the behavioural effects show that the majority of people, the overwhelming majority of people, want to be part of a national effort to fight the virus.
‘And of course there will be some, a very, very small minority, who will be heedless of the consequences of their actions.
‘But the other thing is, the police, to be fair to them, are operating things in a very proportionate way.
‘They engage and they explain well before they enforce. We all know that people make innocent errors and an appropriate word can mean that innocent error can be corrected by any of us.
‘But where you do get persistent, flagrant and deliberate breaching of the rules, then it is appropriate for action to be taken.’
A DHSC spokesman said: ‘It is a legal requirement for people who have tested positive for Covid-19 and their close contacts to self-isolate when formally notified to do so. ‘The memorandum of understanding ensures that information is shared with appropriate safeguards and in accordance with the law. No testing or health data is shared in this process.’
People in England are legally required to self-isolate if they test positive for Covid-19, with fines starting at £1,000 for those who fail to do so, rising to £10,000 for repeat offenders or serious breaches.
Professor Lucy Yardley, of the University of Bristol, said the use of fines could mean people were too afraid to report symptoms. ‘The consequence can be that not only them, but family members and work colleagues, would be asked to self-isolate when they really couldn’t afford to,’ she said.
When NHS Test and Trace was launched in May, Health Secretary Matt Hancock claimed it was vital to halting the spread of the virus, and that lockdown was the only way forward if it did not work. But five months on, following a string of failures, and after NHS Test and Trace achieved its worst ever performance for reaching contacts of infected people, Baroness Harding played down its importance.
She told the Sunday Times: ‘Everyone wants to believe that Test and Trace is a silver bullet. It has never been and it never will be. The only way that we’re going to learn how to live with Covid is through a number of different interventions, of which Test and Trace is undoubtedly a very important one.’
The latest figures show 62.6 per cent of close contacts of people who tested positive for Covid in England were reached through the system in the week ending October 7. That is the lowest weekly percentage since NHS Test and Trace began, and is down from 69.5 per cent the previous week.
The latest data shows that 89,874 people tested positive for Covid-19 in England in the week to October 7 – a rise of almost two-thirds compared to the previous seven days, and the highest weekly number since Test and Trace was launched at the end of May.