sort this mess out or hand it over to us and get out of the way." matt hancock, commenting on the same issue, suggested that the reason people were unable to book tests was that the proportion being booked by people who were not eligible to have them had risen to 25%. he said "e have seen an increase in demand including from people who are not eligible for tests, people who don't have symptoms". in mid-september, the independent reported that the lighthouse labs had been partly staffed by university technicians and students, who had since returned to their universities; there were also logistical difficulties with movement of test samples. a report by the guardian described testing sites attended by hardly any people, staffed by personnel frustrated at not being permitted to test people from nearby who turn up without an appointment. it was reported that people attending a site without appointment were advised informally to get an appointment anywhere using a false postcode, and download the qr code for it; with such an appointment they can be tested. analysis by sky news on 17 september found three factors causing strain on the system: the decision to reserve 100,000 tests per day (50% of capacity) for care home residents and staff; a surge in demand from schools; and the resurgence of the pandemic earlier than the expected october or november. questioned on the same day by the science and technology committee of the commons, harding stated the current test capacity was 242,000 per day, and said that the increase in demand had not been expected. the bbc were told that deliveries of samples to labs were unpredictable, making it hard to have the right number of staff in place each day. a 21 september paper from the department of health and social care listed the priorities for swab tests, and stated that members of the public without symptoms should not ask for tests. daily test capacity exceeded 500,000 by the end of october, aided by a further lighthouse lab at newport. in february 2021, daily capacity was 790,000. over 3 million people were tested in the week ending 3 february, the highest number so far; by that date almost 21.8 million people had been tested at least once since the launch of nhs test and trace, equivalent to a third of the population of england. 2021 immensa scandal on 15 october 2021, ukhsa suspended processing of pcr tests at the wolverhampton laboratory of immensa health clinic limited, after the lab was found to have issued incorrect negative test results between 2 september and 12 october. the agency estimated that 43,000 people, mainly in several counties of south west england, could have been given false negative results during that time. it was estimated that around a quarter of positive cases were missed, and experts pointed to a drop in cases in the affected area which was followed by a surge later in october. concerns were raised in late september and early october by members of the public, who noticed occurrences of positive lateral flow tests followed by negative pcr results, and ukhsa were aware of discrepancies by 6 october. it transpired that no checks were in place to compare results against other laboratories. ukhsa launched a "serious untoward incident" investigation into the failings of itself and its predecessors, which published a final report in november 2022. the 87-page report made recommendations regarding procurement of laboratory services, their accreditation and monitoring, and processes for managing the response to incidents. some improvements had already been made to ukhsa processes, including better detection of inconsistent lab results, better record-keeping during incidents, and improvements to contract management. immensa health clinic ltd was established in may 2020 and had been awarded contracts worth £170m to process pcr tests. a sister company, dante labs, was at that time under investigation by the competition and markets authority over concerns that pcr tests for travellers had been mishandled. neither company was accredited by the united kingdom accreditation service, contrary to assurances given by officials including jenny harries, chief executive of ukhsa. contact tracing statistics the department of health & social care publishes weekly statistics on contact tracing. numbers shown below include the complex cases handled by local health protection teams as well as those handled online and by the call centre; the first week's report stated that a "high number" of contacts were managed by the local teams. by the end of july the percentage of contacts reached had decreased, which was said to be primarily due to a decrease in the number of complex cases handled by local teams, where the success rate is higher. of the 3,688 cases handled in the week to 29 july, only 249 (7%) were classed as complex. after their close contacts were identified, in complex cases 93% were reached, while in non-complex cases 61% were reached. following more targets not being met and the percentage of close contacts traced being at a record low of 69.2%, dido harding said "nhs test and trace is working and every week we consistently reach the majority of people testing positive and their contacts". the number of cases increased rapidly in september. by 23 september, the proportion of complex cases recorded by the system was small: 624 people reached, compared to 20,077 non-complex. the complex cases, by their nature, had many close contacts: 19,000 (an average of 30 per case) of whom 97.6% were reached. in contrast, there were 68,500 non-complex contacts (3.4 per case) of whom 61% were reached. in november, a bbc report stated that in several areas – including some with the highest rates of infection – around half of the contacts of known cases were being traced. from 18 november, contact tracing calls to those under the age of 18 ceased to be made in cases where their parent or guardian had already been contacted. sample week, near the peak of the 2021 wave of infections: 7–13 january 2021 positive covid-19 tests referred to test and trace people reached close contacts identified close contacts reached 351,567 304,789 (87%) 613,524 570,097 (93%) cumulative for the first 12 months, 28 may 2020 to 26 may 2021 positive covid-19 tests referred to test and trace people reached close contacts identified close contacts reached 3.90 million 3.38 million (87%) 8.40 million 6.91 million (82%) these statistics ceased to be published after 23 june 2022, following policy changes made in the preceding months under the government's "living with covid-19" plan. reception effectiveness in may 2020, the sage advisory body stated that, for the system to be effective, at least 80% of the contacts of an index case would need to be contacted. in july, medical academic prof allyson pollock wrote that the programme was "about as far from integrated or effective as you can get" and called on the government to publish details of its contracts with outsourcing companies. on 19 september, the guardian reported that the government was preparing to "shore up" the programme by drafting in teams of management consultants. the british medical association (bma) asked 8,190 doctors and medical students in england about their concerns about covid-19; the results were published on 14 september 2020. 86% of respondents expected a second peak, and it was the main concern for 30%. 89% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the failure of test and trace risked causing a second wave. on 21 september, a paper submitted to and endorsed by sage described the test, trace and isolate system as "having a marginal impact on transmission at the moment", owing to relatively low levels of engagement with the system, testing delays and likely poor rates of adherence with self-isolation. in late october, the i-sense research collaboration (funded by the engineering and physical sciences research council) estimated end-to-end effectiveness to be 16%, as follows: take 100 newly infected people of these, 60 are estimated to be symptomatic of these, around 39 are tested and receive a positive result test and trace reaches around 31 (81%), of whom 27 (85%) provide details of contacts test and trace reaches 16 (60%) of the contacts and advises them to isolate. costs in march 2021, the public accounts committee said it was not clear if the contribution of nhs test and trace to reducing infection levels could justify its "unimaginable" costs. they found that the system had never met its target to turnaround all tests in a face-to-face setting in 24 hours, and pointed out that although the system was set up with the aim of preventing future lockdowns, two more had been necessary. dido harding responded that the system was "making a real impact in breaking the chains of transmission". use of underqualified staff in late october 2020, as the second wave of infections put the service under strain, a spokesperson for the department of health and social care said that "experienced call handlers" were being reallocated to gather contact information from infected people, and an internal email said they would work alongside nurses and clinical staff. scams concerns were raised by members of the public and the media about how someone receiving a call from a contact tracer could be sure of it not being a scam. speaking at the uk government's daily coronavirus briefing on 31 may, dr jenny harries, the deputy chief medical officer for england, acknowledged those concerns but said it would quickly become apparent the call came from a professional, who "will make it very clear to you that they are calling for a particular reason. i think it will be very evident, when somebody rings you, these are professionally trained individuals and sitting over them are a group of senior clinical professionals." during the contact tracing app trial on the isle of wight, the chartered trading standards institute found evidence of a phishing scam. victims would receive a text stating that they had been in contact with someone with covid-19 and were directed to a website to input their personal details. data protection concerns over data security and data protection have been raised. at launch, the programme did not have a data protection impact assessment, which is required by law. in july, it was reported that workers on contract were sharing patients’ confidential information on social media support groups, due to a lack of alternative means to solve problems within their teams. on 20 july, privacy campaigners the open rights group obtained an admission from government lawyers that nhs test and trace was operating unlawfully and breached general data protection regulations (gdpr) because an overarching impact assessment had not been carried out. in response the uk government said there was no evidence that data had been shared with third parties. international comparisons although countries keep records in different ways, the our world in data research team from the university of oxford said that the uk was performing more tests than many other countries. as of 14 september 2020, they show that at 2.76 tests per 1,000 people, the uk rate was ahead of most countries, including the major european countries: belgium (2.3), russia (2.1), france (2.07), ireland (2.07), norway (2.03), germany (1.79), sweden (1.78), spain (1.77), switzerland (1.42), netherlands (1.36), austria (1.35), italy (0.91) and poland (0.46). in other uk countries similar programmes were put in place in the other countries of the uk. northern ireland became the first constituent country to reintroduce contact tracing when, on 23 april 2020, its chief medical officer, michael mcbride, announced that a scheme was "active". following a pilot, the system became fully operational in northern ireland on monday 18 may. northern ireland was the first part of the uk to launch a contact-tracing app, which was launched on 30 july. the app runs on both ios and android operating systems, but the developer said that it would not work on iphone 6 or older apple devices. plans for test & protect, a contact tracing service in scotland, were published by the scottish government on 26 may 2020, and it was launched on 28 may, shortly after nhs test and trace went live; a companion app 'protect scotland' was launched to the public on 10 september. the service in wales, run by nhs wales and known as 'test, trace, protect', launched on 1 june 2020.