Test & Trace [cost taxpayer incredible £37-39billion!]  lost track of nearly 600 million Covid tests

“The National Audit Office spending watchdog concluded that the system was still failing to “deliver value for taxpayers”, with a lack of any targets for self-isolation by the public and a continued reliance on private consultants.

“Test and Trace, which was run by Tory peer Dido Harding, has already come under fire for its use of private firms Serco [UKR Note: CEO Rupert Soames brother of Tory MP Nicholas Soames] and Deloitte and its repeated failures in 2020 to track down contacts of people who had Covid.

“In the six months from November last year to April this year, it failed to reach nearly 100,000 people who had tested positive for Covid and as result failed to identify their contacts who could potentially infect others.

“The NAO also criticised Matt Hancock’s decision to absorb its functions into a new UK Health Security Agency, saying there was “a risk that the restructuring will divert NHS TandT’s attention away from efforts to contain the spread of the virus”.

“It has given the government until October to sort out the problems, including how it will “best support citizens to come forward for tests and comply with self-isolation requirements” – a clear signal that the watchdog believes the public need higher payments to home quarantine.”

“The report found that only a small proportion of the Covid tests distributed have been registered as used.

Test and Trace had forecast that between March and May 2021, 655 million lateral flow tests would be used in the UK.

But up to 26 May, just 96 million (14%) of the 691 million tests distributed in England had been registered. “NHS T and T does not know whether the tests that have not been registered have been used or not,” it said.

“Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier pointed out that the report had found that 45% of Test and Trace staff at its head office were still private consultants, despite Harding’s promises to reduce their number and to replace them with civil servants.

“Test and Trace employed more consultants in April 2021 than it did in November 2020. Despite being nearly a year old, nearly half the central staff are consultants,” Hillier said..”

QUOTE THREE

“Pascale Robinson, campaigns officer at We Own It said: “It’s abundantly clear now that despite millions upon millions of pounds being handed to private companies, they have demonstrably failed to deliver a functioning system, leaving us without a crucial defence against Covid transmissions and needlessly putting lives at risk”