Test and trace consultants earning average of £1,000 a DAY

The Test and Trace system is forking out almost £1million a day to just one consultancy firm, it has emerged.

The Government is paying an average of £1,000 a day to each consultant working on the programme. Deloitte has 900 employees working for the service.

David Williams, joint permanent secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care, revealed the shocking figures during a Commons public accounts committee meeting.

Asked about government reliance on private sector staff – and specifically how many Deloitte employees work for Test and Trace – he said it was down to roughly 900 from more than 1,000 in October.

'We're going to see that number reduced markedly over the course of the next few months,' he said.

Pushed on the cost of individual consultants, Mr Williams said: 'The average cost across our consultancy support, and I imagine it's about the same for Deloitte, is around £1,000 a day.' 

Baroness Dido Harding, chairman of the programme, defended the 'appropriate' use of the private sector in 'extreme emergency circumstances'. 

'They've done very important work alongside the public servants, the military, the healthcare professionals and members of the private sector who have come and joined us as well,' she told the committee.

'We couldn't have built the service without all of that combined expertise.'

Figures reveal there are 2,959 consultants and contractors working for the Test and Trace system.

The £375million wage bill, which vastly exceeds previous estimates, is equivalent to £163,000 per consultant, even though many are engaged for only short periods.