Is businesswoman Dido Harding the right person to head up NHS Test and Trace?

To tackle the spread of Covid-19 in the UK, government is rolling out its NHS Test and Trace system.

The rollout comes months after many other countries successfully implemented a similar system and it is being led by former TalkTalk Chief Executive Dido Harding.

The appointment has been questioned by many though – who point to multiple data breaches during Harding’s reign at Talk Talk – more here

Harding is also on the Board of the Jockey Club – who own Cheltenham Racecourse – and there has been criticism of the decision to allow Cheltenham Races 2020 to go ahead as the Covid-19 pandemic was starting to grip the UK.

Health professionals have said the decision led to a spike in cases around the Gloucestershire region.

As reported in the Daily Mail: Scientists have claimed that the decision to allow the Cheltenham Festival to go ahead caused extra coronavirus deaths across the UK – and a cluster of cases locally.

Earlier this week, Professor Tim Spector said the number of infections ‘increased several fold’ around the area because of the pre-lockdown event in March. ‘They’ll have caused increased suffering and death,’ the epidemiologist, of King’s College London, told Radio 4’s File on 4.

The roll-out of NHS Test and Trace has been a shambles say those involved and questions are rightly going to be asked about whether Dido Harding is the right person to steer its delivery.

More to follow.