Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the debate entitled Contact tracing applications, which took place at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 25 January 2023.

The Government will consider the conclusions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe alongside lessons learnt and relevant findings more generally, including in due course from the COVID-19 public inquiry, in looking at the best options for using technology to respond to any future pandemic.

The National Health Service COVID-19 app is currently available to those aged 16 or over in England and Wales and is an effective and anonymous contact tracing tool. It has been downloaded over 31.5 million times since its launch on 24 September 2020. As of December 2022, the app had 7.7 million users. It also enables users to check their symptoms and enter positive NHS-provided or private test results, as well as signposting to public health and policy advice. The App, which incorporates proportionate and appropriate data protection mechanisms, has been shown to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.