Dido Harding to run agency replacing PHE

Dido Harding, the woman in charge of England’s widely criticised test-and-trace system, has been chosen to run the new institute set to replace Public Health England.

Harding will be named by Health Secretary Matt Hancock as the interim chair of the National Institute for Health Protection, which will be charged with preventing future outbreaks of infectious diseases.

The government’s decision to scrap PHE has prompted widespread criticism that Boris Johnson’s administration was trying to shift the blame for its own failings during the pandemic.

Harding, who has been a Conservative member of the House of Lords since she was given a life peerage in 2014, is already the chair of the regulator NHS Improvement as well as the contact-tracing programme that is accused of tracking down too few people who have tested positive for the virus.

Test and trace has a £10 billion budget, but has has only contacted 78 per cent of people diagnosed with the virus, and 72 per cent of their contacts, since its creation in May.

Munira Wilson, Liberal Democrat health, wellbeing and social care spokesperson, said: “Given Dido Harding’s track record overseeing the set-up of England’s sub-par test-and-trace system, many people will be worried to hear that she may be given a pivotal new role in the NHS. We need to have total transparency in how appointments of this kind are made, to ensure we get the best people for the job. Rather than focus on promoting yet another Tory insider, the government would do well to reflect on their handling of this pandemic and launch an independent inquiry to ensure we don’t repeat past mistakes.”