Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason local authority Directors of Public Health were not automatically granted access to the National Testing Programme dashboard for their local authority area.

From 11 June, NHS Digital, with the support of the Department, made available an operational data dashboard – including counts of total tests, total positives and total voids per local authority - to Directors of Public Health. This was to support Directors of Public Health and local authorities’ operational needs while more detailed data sharing was being put in place. We are now making this even more detailed so users can drill down to Lower Super Output Area – on average 1,700 people.

Public Health England began providing record level positive test data, including postcodes, to local authorities, including Directors of Public Health, on 24 June. As the information contained is personally identifiable, we do need a specific data sharing agreement in place with a specific named individual. Because of data protection, the users are typically the Director of Public Health. They are granted access once they have returned the data sharing agreement.