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Reading the new NAO report on test and trace I’m struck by 3 things:
1) the vast majority of the budget is for testing. Why so little on contain? Stark difference in approach to leading Asian countries. As for the app, £43m may not be value for money but it’s a rounding error.
1) the vast majority of the budget is for testing. Why so little on contain? Stark difference in approach to leading Asian countries. As for the app, £43m may not be value for money but it’s a rounding error.
2) the absence of proper spending controls. Civil service commercial skills have improved lots in recent years but there seems to have been a complete failure to apply these. And weren’t Baroness Harding and other external hires meant to bring commercial expertise?
3) govt didn’t even consider utilising the skills and capacity of local authorities for tracing. A govt review of 15 other countries found none had outsourced like we had!
As ever, it’s a great report from the NAO and worth a read https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The-governments-approach-to-test-and-trace-in-England-interim-report.pdf
Worth noting that they will publish a second one in the spring assessing VfM of the programme
Worth noting that they will publish a second one in the spring assessing VfM of the programme
