Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason track and trace staff do not always have cases to follow up when they are logged on to the system.

NHS Test and Trace is a brand, new service which has been launched at incredible speed and scale and is already identifying thousands of contacts of positive cases and preventing transmission of the virus. We have recruited 27,000 contact tracing staff in England to support the Test and Trace service who have all been trained and are fully supported in their work by public health experts.

We are working hard to identify and follow up with the contacts of all people who have a positive test result. Over 132,000 potential contacts have now been reached and asked to self-isolate.

With rates of infection relatively low it is entirely right that some call handlers have spare capacity. As restrictions lift and people return to a more normal way of life, the role of contact tracers and social distancing measures will be even more vital.