Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of concerns raised by local authorities, in particular those raised by Cumbria County Council, about the performance of private companies carrying out track and trace operations to address the COVID-19 pandemic; and what plans they have to divert the resources provided to those companies to local authorities to ensure that contact tracing is local by default.

We are working with local authorities and other community partners to minimise the risk of local outbreaks occurring to respond swiftly and effectively to stop the spread of COVID-19. As of 18 December, we have over 270 local contact tracing partnerships in place, with more in implementation. In the week 3 to 9 December, 96.6% of contacts where communication details were given were reached and told to self-isolate, an increase from 92.5% in the previous week.

To support these local responses, we have already made £700 million additional funding available for local authorities in England to develop robust, tailored outbreak control plans to identify and contain potential outbreaks.