Gov will ditch its current version of crucial NHS contact tracing app, Hancock to reveal

MATT Hancock will today announce the NHS is ditching its current version of its crucial contact tracing app, The Sun has learnt.

The Health Secretary will outline a “new approach” to the much delayed smartphone app that was once hailed as the key to lifting lockdown restrictions.

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He will announce that the current centralised version developed by the NHS will be merged with a separate platform developed by Apple and Google.

Officials confirmed the app is not being rolled out in its current form as it is failing to prove effective.

They said there were pros and cons to both the centralised NHS app and the decentralised Google and Apple version so integrating the platforms will take advantage of the benefits of both.

A source said the new approach will “take the pros from both and get rid of the cons.”

Matthew Gould – the man put in charge of spearheading the app – has been booted off the project amid the ongoing delays, sources said. He will be replaced by Simon Thompson, chief product officer at Ocado who previously spent almost two years at Apple.

Incorporating the Apple and Google technology will put England and Wales in line with most other European countries, which will make it easier for Brits to travel to the continent as they will already have the same app needed to flag up new outbreaks.

France is the only other country that had shunned the Apple and Google app to date and the country is expected to make the shift too.
The uniform approach will help prevent new arrivals to the UK spreading the virus here as they will have the same technology.

Health ministers from around Europe held a virtual meeting today to agree to shift to the Apple/Google app.

But the shift threatens to delay the lifting of lockdown restrictions as the app is key to chasing down new coronavirus cases and identifying the source of outbreaks.

The app had been seen as key in the drive to chase down local flare-ups of the virus and impose ‘whack-a-mole’ lockdown measures to stop it spreading.

Mr Thompson will now take responsibility for the app and he will report directly to Test and Trace chief Baroness Dido Harding.

It comes after Health Minister Lord Bethell said the contact tracing smart phone app may not even be ready by the winter.