To use, if asked
Many thanks for getting in touch about this important issue. I absolutely agree with you that COVID-19 will be with us for many months to come and we need an effective contact tracing system to ensure we can identify positive cases quickly and then give people the support they need. Local councils, working closely with GPs, local public health experts and the local voluntary and community sector, are best placed to achieve this and there is clear evidence that a local-led approach is far more effective than an outsourced, centralised system.
We could have achieved so much more with the money the Government casually handed over to Serco and the other outsourcing companies. I see from the news that even the previous Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt believes that the test and trace system would have been more successful if it had been led by local councils.
I will most certainly write to Matt Hancock, ask him not to renew the contract with Serco and give local authorities the support and funding we need to do the work to keep us all safe.