NHS adopts Google/Apple framework for Covid-19 app

The government has announced the next phase of development in building an app that supports the end-to-end NHS Test and Trace service.

The next phase will bring together the work done so far on the NHS Covid-19 app and the new Google/Apple framework. Following rigorous field testing and a, now seemingly unsuccessful trial on the Isle of Wight, the Department of Health and Social Care has identified challenges with both the app and the Google/Apple framework.

The government will now be taking forward a solution that brings together the work on its app and the Google/Apple solution, which will enable ministers 'to develop an app that will bring together the functionality required to carry out contact tracing', whilst also making it easy to order tests, and access proactive advice and guidance to aid self-isolation.

The announcement is widely being seen as a major setback for the competence of the app and its progress. After a trial on the Isle of Wight at the start of May, the contact-tracing app was meant to be rolled out to the rest of England by the middle of that month, before it was swiftly moved to some time in June. It was only recently revealed that the app would not be ready and fully functional until the winter. Now officials have decided to ditch the app entirely in its current form.

DHSC has spent three months and millions of pounds on technology that experts had repeatedly warned would not work, and now the NHS will switch to an alternative designed by the US tech companies Apple and Google, which is also months away from being ready.

The previous, centralised version of the untested technology planned to use anonymised data from people who reported feeling ill was held in an NHS database to enable better tracing and data analysis. This version was not supported by Apple and Google and, the Isle of Wight trial indicates that the app only recognised four per cent of Apple phones and 75 per cent of Google Android devices.

A joint statement from Baroness Dido Harding, executive chair of NHS Test and Trace, and Matthew Gould, CEO of NHSX, reads: "Three weeks ago we launched NHS Test and Trace as a brand new, end-to-end service, to help control the spread of Covid-19 and we are hugely grateful for the way the public have responded to protect those around them. Our ambition is to develop an app which will enable anyone with a smartphone to engage with every aspect of the NHS Test and Trace service, from ordering a test through to accessing the right guidance and advice. This will support our vision of helping more people get back to the most normal life possible at the lowest risk.

"Our response to this virus has and will continue to be as part of an international effort. That is why as part of a collaborative approach we have agreed to share our own innovative work on estimating distance between app users with Google and Apple, work that we hope will benefit others, while using their solution to address some of the specific technical challenges identified through our rigorous testing.

"We will also draw on the invaluable insight from all of those who trialled the app on the Isle of Wight – and the brilliant teams who have worked on it to date – to build an app that can form part of the end-to-end NHS Test and Trace service, and this insight will be integral to the next phase of development. Crucially, NHS Test and Trace is already playing a vital role in helping us stop the spread of the virus. We will keep learning, improving and refining to build a high-quality service on which all of us can depend and to have the right technology in place."

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: "We knew from the start that we would need to test and learn as we developed this new technology. The NHS Covid-19 app has undergone some of the most rigorous testing in the world – utilising a real world trial on the Isle of Wight pilot and in a series of field tests – and I want to thank all of those involved.

"As we enter this next phase of research and development we remain determined to continue in our ambition to develop an app which meets the technical, security and user needs of the public and which can complement the NHS Test and Trace service.

"Countries across the globe have faced challenges in developing an app which gets all of these elements right, but through ongoing international collaboration we hope to learn, improve and find a solution which will strengthen our global response to this virus."

Silkie Carlo, the director of the privacy charity Big Brother Watch, said: “This just shows what a mess the centralised data-hungry approach was. Government was wrong to waste precious time and millions of pounds of public money on a design that everyone warned was going to fail, and now we’re back at square one.”