AFTER months of development, the UK Government has decided to ditch its contact-tracing app and use a design by tech giants Apple and Google – which now won’t be ready until the autumn at least.
Yesterday’s U-turn came after the app, designed by NHSX, was plagued with technical issues and delays and criticised by privacy campaigners.
READ MORE: Matt Hancock denies technical problems in NHS test and trace app
Ministers had presented their app as a crucial part of test and trace schemes across the UK nations as lockdown measures are eased. Their reversal comes as Germany and Italy roll out their apps which are based on Apple and Google’s systems - Canada, too, will soon use the firm’ tech in their own software.
Here’s the timeline of what went wrong with the NHSX app.
April 12
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announces the new app. He says it is being tested and the UK Government is working with world-leading tech companies and experts in clinical safety and digital ethics.
He says: “If you become unwell with the symptoms of coronavirus you can securely tell this new NHS app and the app will then send an alert anonymously to other app users that you’ve been in significant contact with over the past few days, even before you have symptoms so that they know and can act accordingly.”
April 14
Hancock says the app is “crucial” to slow the spread of Covid-19 and will be operational in a “matter of weeks”.
He said: “Because the combination of mass testing and contact tracing alongside it, both with people doing the contact tracing and with technology, a new app that will help to identify who people have been close to – these things are so crucial to holding down the rate and level of transmission of the disease.”
April 28
Hancock tells the Downing Street coronavirus press conference that the app will be ready to download from “the middle of May” and encouraged “as many as possible” to install it on their phones.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesperson calls the software a “key part of the surveillance programme going forward”.
May 3
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announces the app will be piloted on the Isle of Wight before a wide roll-out later in the month. He says installing it would be “the best possible way to help the NHS” and stressed user data would be confidential.
NHS England national medical director Stephen Powis said the app is likely to be “one component” of a number of measures.
May 4
The app launches on the Isle of Wight. But Amnesty International UK is warning that the public’s right to privacy may become “another casualty” of the pandemic.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says the Scottish Government is not building its strategy around the app, while Welsh FM Mark Drakeford also voices privacy concerns.
Dr Orla Lynskey, of the London School of Economics, gives evidence to the Human Rights select committee and tells MPs there are privacy concerns over the NHSX app.
But Matthew Gould, the NHSX chief executive, tells them the data on the app will not be shared with Apple, Google, or the police.
May 5
Hancock insists there is “high privacy” in the app and calls Amnesty International UK’s allegations “completely wrong”.
Keir Starmer warns the Tory Government against putting “all your eggs in the basket of this particular app”.
READ MORE: Covid-19: Ex-FM calls separate tracing apps for nations 'nonsense'
Concerns emerge over how the devolved nations will feed into the app.
May 7
A report from the Joint Human Rights Committee warns assurances from ministers about app privacy would not carry weight unless they are enshrined in law.
May 10
Robert Jenrick says about 40% of people on the Isle of Wight were using the NHS app in a pilot.
Meanwhile, experts raise concerns about the app’s reliance on self-reporting and the risk it could be used to “prank” people.
May 11
NHSX admits that some new Huawei phones and some older mobiles cannot run the NHS contact tracing app being trialled on the Isle of Wight.
Dr Geraint Lewis, who is in charge of the development of the NHS Covid-19 app, says the new tool will only work with newer operating systems on Apple and Samsung phones.
May 18
Downing Street announces the NHS contact tracing app will be launched across the country in the “coming weeks”, despite Health Secretary Matt Hancock suggesting it would be rolled out in mid-May.
May 20
Apple and Google’s contact tracing system is released for the first time, as security researchers flag several potential flaws in the rival NHS contact tracing app.
The tech giants worked together to create an Exposure Notifications System which can be built into health agency apps, using Bluetooth to track contact with others and alert users when they may have been exposed to the virus.
May 28
England’s contact tracing system is launched with the help of 25,000 contact tracers – but without the NHS app being rolled out beyond the Isle of Wight.
Matt Hancock says the human contact tracing measures need to be introduced before the app, “getting people used to the idea” first.
June 8
Psychologists at the British Psychological Society (BPS) warn people’s behaviour will determine the success or failure of the coronavirus contact tracing app.
June 16
Hancock downplays the importance of the contact tracing app for smartphones, saying the public needed advice “given by human beings” to gain “confidence” in the new track and trace system.
June 17
Health minister Lord Bethell, who is one of those responsible for the smartphone app, announces to MPs that the app may not be ready until the winter.
He told the Science and Technology Committee that the pilot of the app on the Isle of Wight had been successful, but said the app “isn’t the priority at the moment”.
June 18
Apple and Google take over the design of the Track and Trace app from the NHS’s digital arm NHSX as the Government abandons its own app.
Officials said the Government’s app was highly inaccurate when used on iPhones – only identifying around 4% of contacts – while the Apple-Google framework recorded 99% of all contacts. Only 73% of cases were contacted overall.
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