Downing Street said Boris Johnson continued to have “full confidence” in Baroness Dido Harding as head of NHS Test and Trace.
Mr Johnson’s official spokesman at the Daily briefing said:
“I think we’ve certainly set out before that the Prime Minister continues to have full confidence in Dido Harding.
“NHS Test and Trace has built a testing capacity of over 360,000-a-day from a starting point of 2,000-a-day in March – that is a bigger figure per head than in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. 1.1 million have been contacted and told to self-isolate.
“But as you’ve also heard the Prime Minister say, the system does need to improve especially in terms of the turnaround times for tests and we expect that to happen.”
He said staffing levels were being increased and that more automation would allow for more tests to be carried out “in order to drive improvement”.
Over the weekend, Sir Bernard Jenkin, Tory MP for Harwich called for her to be given a “well-earned rest” and moved on to focus on “lessons learned”.
He warned of a “vacuum of leadership in test and trace, which is destroying public confidence and compliance”, it was reported on Saturday evening. He went on to criticise the handling of calls and data in a “spaghetti of command and control” at the top of the organisation.
Independent Sage, a group of scientists set up to scrutinise the government’s coronavirus response, said the £12bn system should be removed from the control of Dido Harding and the private companies Deloitte and Serco. They want laboratories to be taken over by the NHS and tracing to be run by local directors of public health with the money currently going into private contracts redirected.
