Coronavirus testing - Carshalton and Wallington MP none the wiser

Unavailable (Government figures 2020)

During a pandemic, we need honesty from our government so that the public can trust their policies and follow their guidance. Trust in the government is vital.

The current Tory government have lied to the public over and over again during the pandemic, and even their own MPs are kept in the dark.

What’s in a test?

Boris Johnson had set a target of 100,000 people tested a day by 30th April, confusingly Matt Hancock set a target of 100,000 tests rather than 100,000 people - bizarrely ‘tests’ do not have to have been used on a person for Hancock to include them in his data.

When the figures for 30th April were announced, Hancock declared that he had hit the target, and media headlines went along with this narrative. On closer inspection, it emerged that the sudden jump in the number of tests between 29th and 30th April was largely because 39,000 tests were put in the post on 30th April and included in the data in order to claim that the target had been hit. This was pure and simple data manipulation by the government.

Double counting predicted

On 2nd May I wrote to Carshalton & Wallington MP Elliot Colburn hoping that he could clarify the situation, see extract:

‘The 30th April Covid data issued by the government included tests sent out to the public rather than tests returned to laboratories for testing.

This seems illogical, as the purpose of testing is to provide overall data on positive tests and to alert individuals if they need to isolate. Tests sent to individuals provide none of this information on the day they are sent, so distort the overall data. If this is the method now being used, so be it. What I request that you find out please is:

What procedures have the government put in place to ensure those tests are not double counted when returned?’

Mr Colburn replied that he had written to the Department of Health and Social Care to raise my concerns, and would advise when they have replied.

Where have all the figures gone?

Before he could get an answer, the manipulation was raised to a new level - the government stopped announcing the number of people tested at all. I wrote to our MP again to check if he had any response to the query on policies to prevent double counting:

‘Could you please find out for me how many people were tested for COVID on 18th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th May, as the ONS data on the gov.uk site has this data as 'unavailable' on each of these days. The number of people tested is crucial to public safety, and I am alarmed that the government are telling the public that they don't know how many people have been tested’.

Again Mr Colburn replied that he would write to the Department of Health and Social Care to raise my concerns, and would advise when they have replied.

Elliot Colburn, MP for Carshalton and Wallington

Government ignores local MP

They never did.

For 49 days in a row, the number of people tested figure was ‘unavailable’. When the government eventually started reporting it again, instead of issuing daily tables, they put the data on a website with a Where’s Wally style ‘its there if you can find it’. However, they now publish a weekly rather than daily number of people tested, and this figure is always a week out of date, rendering it of little use.

Double counting admitted (quietly)

There was never a direct government response to our MP regarding my 2nd May concerns about double counting tests either, but on 14th August the government admitted in their website small print that they had removed 1.3m coronavirus tests from its data because of double counting.

Who is holding the government to account?

After 3 months of Matt Hancock announcing false data, I finally got my answer to the question ‘What procedures have the government put in place to ensure those tests are not double counted when returned?’

None.

This government will double count for three months, ignore questions asked via a Tory MP, then quietly reduce the data by 1.3 million and hope no one notices, not even their own MPs.

Article contributed by Greg Herriett & Insight team.