Labour MPs in Black Country critical of 'colossal' NHS Test and Trace cost

The Public Accounts Committee said the Government scheme had shown "no clear evidence" it had helped to curb Covid-19 infection levels.

Cross-party MPs on the committee challenged ministers to justify the "staggering" investment, with private consultants being paid up to £6,624 a day.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the scheme, which could cost £37 billion in total, was responsible for allowing the start of lockdown-easing measures.

Now MPs from the Black Country have had their say – with Labour MPs being critical of the money being used to pay for private consultants on the scheme.

Meanwhile Conservative politicians have defended the programme and described it as a "complex logistical challenge" which had to be tackled almost from scratch.

Shadow City Minister Patrick McFadden MP, who represents Wolverhampton South East, said: "The money spent on this programme has been colossal – £23 billion so far and a total budget of £37 billion.

"It has been described by the former chief official at the Treasury as 'the most wasteful and inept public spending programme of all time' and the Public Accounts Committee found it had made little difference.

"The contrast between the vast sums of money spent on this programme and the inability to find money to give NHS staff a decent pay rise is glaring and obvious.

"Public spending is not always about more borrowing or more taxes – it’s about making the right choices and prudent management of what you do."

John Spellar, Labour MP for Warley, said the programme stood "in stark contrast" to the success of the vaccine taskforce who had coordinated with the Armed Forces and frontline medics.

He added: "The problem with Test and Trace, they become completely taken over by middle men who are not very good at what they do and are very expensive."

The Public Accounts Committee said the programme does publish a significant amount of weekly data, including some that shows full compliance with the self-isolation rules relied upon by the scheme can be low.

But it criticised the data for failing to show the speed of the process from "cough to contact" and therefore not allowing the public to judge the "overall effectiveness of the programme".

The committee's report said the scheme admitted in February that it still employs around 2,500 consultants, at an estimated daily rate of around £1,100, with the best paid consultancy staff on £6,624.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he believed the team behind Test and Trace had done an "amazing job" and was "incredibly grateful" for the work they've done.

Nicola Richards, Conservative MP for West Bromwich East, said: "Testing and contact tracing in the community is a complex logistical challenge and I don’t think the public would have been very happy if we’d done it on the cheap.

"It’s important to understand the scale of the challenge we were facing last year. We had to build our testing capability almost from scratch.

"We now have the capacity to carry out over 800,000 PCR tests each day, which is a tremendous achievement considering where we’ve come from. Coupled with rapid flow tests, we’re now testing more people than any other country in Europe, which is supported by the data considering the UK currently has the second lowest number of Coronavirus cases in Europe.

"What many people also don’t realise is that around 80 per cent of Test and Trace’s expenditure goes on testing. Over nine million people have been contacted by Test and Trace – that’s nine million possible infections that have been identified, contacted, and prevented from potentially passing the virus onto others."