THE UK Government stopped Holyrood ministers from seeing vital data collected at rapid coronavirus testing sites across Scotland, it has emerged.
The centres, used for testing key workers and hospital staff and set up by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in early April, had been operational for weeks before Scottish and Welsh minister were granted access to the results, according to the Guardian.
Sites had been opened at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness airports in Scotland and Cardiff City’s football stadium in Wales.
Until late last month, the DHSC, which contracted accountancy firm Deloitte to run the scheme, opted to provide results to individual patients. Under the department’s data disclosure rules, that meant the results could not be given to the Scottish and Welsh governments.
The move also prevented the figures from those sites being included in Holyrood and Senedd coronavirus updates, or the governments' crisis planning.
The Scottish Government said that the figures provided by the DHSC are still not included in the First Minsiter’s daily briefings because they need to be studied for accuracy. The data is expected to be published early this month, a month after rapid testing sites first opened.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon: Not for London to decide when we re-open schools
The Glasgow and Cardiff sites were up and running for almost three weeks before the devolved administrations were given access to the data. Until then, they were merely informed how many tests had been completed each day, but not the results of those tests.
Speaking on April 16 as the Edinburgh Airport test site opened, UK Government Health Minister Lord Bethell, heralded it as a “national effort to boost testing capacity for coronavirus to protect the vulnerable, support our NHS, and ultimately save lives”.
The UK, Welsh and Scottish governments told the Guardian they finally settled the data dispute in late April.
Hoylrood officials told the newspaper that they have been providing Westminster with comprehensive data from all testing programmes since March.
The Scottish Government added that knowing how many key workers were positive was “essential in order to report meaningfully on the testing conducted at these facilities”.
A Welsh government spokesman commented: “We identified issues around the storage of data from testing centres at the outset and worked with UK government and Deloitte to ensure data was retained by NHS Wales.”
A DHSC spokesman said: “We have made clear from the outset we would be happy to provide this data to NHS National Services Scotland and have now done so after being provided with the necessary legal and technical assurances from Scotland.
“A new digital system has now been built which will allow the fast flowing of this data to the relevant public health authorities, including in Scotland, going forwards.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel