The NHS COVID-19 app has been designed to use the minimum possible personal data or information. Expertise from across the United Kingdom Government and industry, including the National Cyber Security Centre, has been utilised to review our design and to help test and improve the app.

The app uses Bluetooth Low Energy to measure the distance between phones with the app downloaded, but it will never access location, contacts, or any other personal data saved in a phone.

There is an ongoing programme of monitoring and assessment to make sure that user data is safe and secure and to ensure that the app complies with protective measures established by data protection law.

Rail operators are working hard to facilitate social distancing between passengers wherever possible, in line with Public Health England advice. Operators are providing information about train loadings on their website, allowing passengers to make informed choices, and are monitoring the number of passengers who board services. A free personalised messaging service, ‘Alert Me by Messenger’, is also available via the National Rail Enquiries (NRE) website. It provides real-time alerts on journey disruption and crowding. This helps passengers make safer travel choices, such as travelling off-peak where possible, and improves safety and efficiency on the rail network. Since June, the NRE service has sent around 3 million alerts.

People should seek to book tickets online wherever possible and to plan ahead, and operators are highlighting on their websites the services that are quieter or busier to enable travellers to make informed decisions.

The NHS Test and Trace software quality is appropriate for its use as it is based on historically proven Public Health England and National Health Service software. The challenges have been around scaling as the volume of positive test results increased exponentially. The priority initiatives have therefore focused on improving data quality; making technology infrastructure improvements to allow faster test results and faster contact tracing; and moving away from legacy architecture that was not designed for this purpose.

Work is underway to establish what information can be published about app usage and its role in the COVID-19 response, including information related to self-isolation taking in to account that users of the app are anonymous.

As of 14 December the information available shows that there have been 657 video calls made using the Purple Visits app at Cookham Wood, Werrington and Wetherby Young Offender Institutions and Oakhill and Rainsbrook Secure Training Centres since the start of May. There have also been 491 calls for the entirety of HMYOI Feltham (A and B sites, for children and young adults respectively). 241 calls were also made at HMYOI Parc (which includes a specific young people’s unit), however, it is not currently practical to break down how many of these were made by children and young people.

This has supplemented access to regular phone calls (with young people having been allocated additional free phone credits) as well as ‘face to face’ social visits, which re-commenced across public sector under 18 Young Offender Institutions from mid-July. Furthermore, ‘SECURE STAIRS - the integrated framework of care jointly led by NHS England and NHS Improvement and the Youth Custody Service (YCS) and which provides the foundations as to how the YCS works with children - has adapted its approach during this period to underline the importance of connectivity, whilst adhering to the guidance on physical distancing.

The spend across Test and Trace for the year to September is £2.7 billion. The Government's winter plan announced an additional £7 billion of funding which will allow NHS Test and Trace to increase testing and continue to improve contact tracing, taking the overall budget for Test and Trace this financial year to £22 billion.

We do not publish data in the format requested.

We are committed to taking action to protect businesses and users from the potential harms associated with substantial and enduring market power in digital platform markets.

Earlier this year, we accepted all the strategic recommendations of the Furman Review and established the cross-regulator Digital Markets Taskforce to advise on the design and implementation of a new pro-competition regime for digital markets.

On 27 November we confirmed the establishment of a new pro-competition regime for tech giants. A Digital Markets Unit (DMU), housed in the Competition and Markets Authority, will be set up to begin to operationalise the new regime. It will work closely with key regulators, including the ICO and Ofcom, to ensure that the new regime is effective and coherent. The Taskforce has advised us that the DMU should prioritise firms active in particular activities, including app stores. We will consider the expert advice and respond in due course. Government will legislate to put the DMU on a statutory footing as soon as parliamentary time allows, following consultation in early 2021.

This information is not readily available nor held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The published information on processing times for visa applications is published as part of the Migration Transparency data, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration

The National Health Service COVID-19 app requires users to be owners of smartphones that can install Apple iOS 13.5 and above and Android Marshmallow and above. This is related to the hardware needed for this Bluetooth technology to work effectively and is the same in all countries with apps using the Google and Apple exposure notification API for contact tracing.

People who do not have a compatible smartphone will still benefit from the app and from other people downloading it. This is because people who use the app are helping to break chains of transmission.

The app complements and supports regular contact tracing. They work together to protect vulnerable groups, including those who are unable, or do not wish, to use digital tools, including the app.

Work is underway to establish what information can be published about app usage and its role in the COVID-19 response, including information related to self-isolation taking in to account that users of the app are anonymous.

Work is underway to establish what information can be published about app usage and its role in the COVID-19 response, including information related to self-isolation taking in to account that users of the app are anonymous.

Estimates using the latest data directly from Apple and Google show that 89% of people with a smartphone in the United Kingdom are able to use the app. These are a device that can install a version of the iOS or Android operating system with the contact tracing technology the National Health Service COVID-19 app uses. For Apple this is iOS versions 13.5 and higher and for Android version Marshmallow (v6.0) and higher. The 89% estimate is made up of 87% of iOS smartphone owners and 93% of Android smartphone owners.

There are two software standards in the UK Fleet due to the progressive transition approach between software loads. UK test aircraft in the USA fly with an additional test-specific software load.

All F-35B aircraft software is updated bi-annually through a regular planned programme of software loads.

To ensure maximum operational availability, maintenance activity required to update each software load is staggered across the available fleet; this transition period is pre-determined and monitored.

We have not provided specific advice to contractors relating to the NHS COVID-19 app, but we are encouraging contractors to adhere to all Government advice, and we continue to signpost all relevant guidance to our suppliers.

We will publish an evaluation of the Isle of Wight and Newham findings in due course.

There is a higher risk of transmitting COVID-19 in premises where customers and visitors spend a long time in one place and potentially come into sustained, close contact with other people outside of their household such as pubs, bars and restaurants and close contact services. There is a lower risk where services are taken off site immediately.

In supermarkets, customers generally move around the space rather than congregate, and are expected, by law, to wear face coverings. QR code posters for NHS Test and Trace are therefore not required for the entrance to a supermarket or other retail outlet. Venues that are not required by law to display a National Health Service QR code poster may still choose to do so as part of the effort to fight coronavirus.

Further guidance, including a full list of establishments that must request contact details from staff, customers and visitors, and display an official NHS QR code poster is published at the following link:

www.gov.uk/guidance/maintaining-records-of-staff-customers-and-visitors-to-support-nhs-test-and-trace

We identified that 15,841 cases between 25 September and 2 October were not included in the reported daily COVID-19 cases.

While there was a delay in reporting these positive test results in the public data, and in transferring them to the contact tracing system, anybody testing positive received their results in the normal way, and in the normal timeframe. All outstanding cases were immediately transferred to the contact tracing system by 1am on 3 October.

NHS Test and Trace has always been a partnership between local and national Government. Since August, NHS Test and Trace has provided local authorities with dedicated team of contact tracers to work alongside local public health officials to provide a more specialist service. Local public health officials can use the data provided by NHS Test and Trace to follow up with cases, which in some areas has involved local teams and voluntary partners visiting people at home.