Coronavirus: Matt Hancock urged to improve ‘trustworthiness’ of daily testing figures by UK statistics watchdog

Target of 100,000 tests was met with aid of kits sent out in post but not returned

The UK’s statistics watchdog has told Matt Hancock to improve the “trustworthiness” of his testing figures, after widespread questions over his claim to have hit his 100,000-a-day target.

UK Statistics Authority chair Sir David Norgrove told the health secretary that more “clarity” was needed over whether the figures released by government reflected the number of coronavirus tests actually completed.

The letter was framed in diplomatic language but represents a serious challenge to Mr Hancock’s claim to have hit his self-imposed target by the deadline of 30 April.

Mr Hancock announced a tally of more than 122,000 tests, but over 40,000 of these were home-testing kits sent out to private addresses or satellite NHS sites on the day, with no proof of whether they had yet been used. Some users said the kits had arrived without return-addressed envelopes and had to be discarded.

In the following days, the daily total slumped back below 70,000, even as Boris Johnson announced a new target of 200,000 tests by the end of May.

It was only yesterday that Mr Johnson announced for the first time that the daily total had once more topped the original target to reach 100,490 on 10 May - again including home-testing kits.

In his letter to Mr Hancock, Sir David said: “For the sake of clarity and confidence, it is important that the target and its context should be set out.

“It should be clear whether the target is intended to reflect testing capacity, tests that have been administered, test results received, or the number of people tested.”

Mr Hancock’s Department of Health and Social Care also needs to improve how it presents the data at the daily Downing Street coronavirus press conferences and government websites, said Norgrove.

“There is limited detail about the nature and types of testing and it is hard to navigate to the best source of information,” he wrote.

“It would support trustworthiness for the testing data ... to be more straightforward to find, with detailed breakdowns and richer commentary.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We successfully hit our target to deliver 100,000 tests a day by the end of April and are committed to increasing our capacity to 200,000 a day across our whole testing programme so we can give tests to even more people that need one.

“The government has been open and transparent in the way we are presenting data about coronavirus, including testing statistics.”