Without a functioning test and trace system, Britain is poorly defended – why can’t this government get it right?

When will Britain have a test and trace system that works? A system that doesn’t rely on old-fashioned spreadsheets, one that doesn’t cost taxpayers £12bn in payments to private contractors, without penalties for failure, and one where those in charge, such as Baroness Dido Harding, are held publicly accountable for its poor performance?

When will we have a system that doesn’t require people to travel hundreds of miles for a test, one where the result doesn’t arrive too late to be of use? Never mind the home secretary telling the Conservative Party conference that the asylum system is “broken”, when will the test and trace regime be fixed?  

It is surely not too much to ask, given the time that has elapsed since the outbreak of Covid-19 and the billions committed to the project. Ministers have been promising this “key” defence against the virus since the spring (shortly after the shortage of national capacity forced the government to abandon any attempt to control the spread of the virus). Still we wait.

Other countries, some equally badly prepared initially, have long since managed to put something in place. Yet Britain relies on a piecemeal system of local and national regimes and even two apps (one for Scotland alone), and an astonishingly uncoordinated strategy. No one appears willing to get a grip or to take responsibility.  

Meanwhile, the virus spreads, the number of infections climbs, the suffering goes on and the death toll will continue to increase. Even if Britain had a test and trace service that worked, the global second wave of coronavirus would make its malign presence felt, but the country is poorly defended.

There is no doubt that there are many dedicated staff working in the public and private sectors to get things right. Capacity has improved since the spring, if only because it was so minuscule before. The app has turned up, at last, even if it has its flaws and the contact tracing remains incomplete. There has been progress, and, as Boris Johnson so often urges, everyone does want the system to succeed.

But even Mr Johnson now admits to “frustration”. Wisely he has abandoned his “boosterism” and braggadocio about a “world-beating app” and the testing “moonshot”. Such detachment from reality was an insult to the intelligence of the voters. The opinion polls and disquiet among Tory MPs demonstrate how foolish and counterproductive it has been for ministers to be over-promising and under-delivering.

At the current rate of progress the pandemic will have burnt itself out by the time the test and trace system is in place. The public will know who has failed and who to sack, when the time comes.