Recommendation 14

NHSX was responsible for the initial development of a new NHS COVID-19 app, before this responsibility transferred to the newly-established NHS Test and Trace. The app, which was initially due to be launched in May 2020, alerts people who have had close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. It was launched on 25 September, after our evidence session and some four months after it was due. We asked NHSX why it had taken so long to launch the app. It told us that while some areas of the project had worked “extremely well”, other parts of the technology had not worked in the way it anticipated. It explained that it started the project before the Google and Apple framework had been announced or developed, and it had changed direction to using this framework very soon after it was announced. It asserted that it had tested “very extensively” to make sure it understood the effects of the app, how it worked and how people would interact with it, and had changed its approach as a result. NHSX estimated that the cost of developing the app and supporting it will be £36 million. It estimated that the cost of the first stage of developing the app was some £10.8 million. Of that, some £4 million was spent on developing the version of the app that it moved away from, £6 million was on development that was necessary for both versions and £0.8 million was on Google and Apple technology that is now being used. It estimated that a further £25 million would be needed for the second app in 2020–21.23 NHSX was not able to tell us what impact it would have on the successful tracing of people, because that would depend 18 C&AG’s Report, para 11, 2.2–2.3 19 C&AG’s Report, para 11 20 DGT0011 - NHS Providers 21 Qq 56–59 22 C&AG’s Report, para 11; Qq 67 & 69 23 Qq 23, 25 & 29; Department of Health and Social Care announcement, 25 September. Available at: https://www. gov.uk/government/news/nhs-covid-19-app-emails-and-sms-messages 12 Digital transformation in the NHS on many