based on figures which came out today in a committee hearing with dido harding who runs the nhs testased start figures about the numbers of people that were acquiring test demand, down four times capacity, 90% of tests are not meeting the 24 hour turnaround promised by boris johnson back in july. hour turnaround promised by boris johnson back injuly. it is struggling under pressure but what struck me about the committee and i am sure the guardian and others will have picked up on is dido harding said nobody could have predicted this. well, couldn't we? any parent knows that children go back to school suffer sniffles and start of term cold, children everywhere get it. and obviously, scientists and the government pension science chiefs and teaching unions and mps and parents were warning months ago we had to watch out when it came to schools going back. i should remember chris whitty talking about capacity and serve patrick balance the two scientific advisers talking about the testing system and how important it was if we would start loosening research and select nonessential retail an

the head of the nhs test and trace programme in england, dido harding, has admitted that no one expectedat has happened since schools went back. during tough questioning from mps, she said there'd been a significant rise in the number of young children and teenagers going for tests, with demand now three orfour times higher than the daily capacity allows. our health editor hugh pym has more. i will show you where to step. that's ok. sarah and her son are looking forward to a new member of the family. she's 41 weeks pregnant and was due to have an important midwife appointment but she had to postpone it as she had a cough and needed a test, but couldn't get one on the official website. it's really important, just to put my mind at ease that everything's ok with the baby, and it's frustrating, you know, not knowing, not being able to get the care and not being able to get the test. i don't know how my care's going to proceed. paul, who is a teacher, has been trying and failing to book a test for members of his family. four days of trying to get testing and nothing at all, not even being of

we are expecting at any moment very soon that the head of the nhs test entry system, baroness dido hardings intervened in the brexit row — he warned any future american trade deal with the uk would depend on respecting the good friday agreement. a new bill is going through parliament, which government admits breaks international law. james landale reports. the border between northern ireland and the republic of ireland has lain at the heart of disagreements over brexit, above all how to keep that border open as required by the good friday agreement. now there are fears that government's decision to revisit the brexit divorce deal could threaten peace and stability here. fears expressed now by the man who could be president. in a tweet, the democratic candidate joe biden said, "we can't allow the good friday agreement that brought peace to northern ireland to become a casualty of brexit. any trade deal between the us and uk must be contingent upon respect for the agreement and preventing the return of a hard border, period." the foreign secretary is in washington having talks with his us co

that is the work that dido harding and herteam... work...r. constantly knocks it on the sidelines, mr speakerlj constantly knocks it on the sidelines, mr speaker. iwouldjust say to the web, there is a little bit of rowdiness coming from here, also from your good self, and we're having a little bit from this site. i want to be able to hear the prime minister. when i cannot hear the prime minister, i wonder about the people watching proceedings. if you have further comment, speak to me afterwards. mr speaker, the prime minister knows my complaint is not with the nhs, it is with the government. my wife works in the nhs. my mother worked for the nhs, my sister works for the nhs, i am not going to take lectures from the prime minister on supporting the nhs. the prime minister says we have capacity, he goes on and on and on about capacity. let's test that. three weeks ago millions of children we nt three weeks ago millions of children went back to school, that is a good thing, then the inevitable happened, they get coughs, bugs, flu, that is what

mr speaker come i think that the continual attacks on dido harding in particular are unseemly, unseemlyexplanation of the current status of track and trace? the government is currently seen on track and trace, we have heard that question being put there by kier starmer, but they maintain that it isa starmer, but they maintain that it is a functioning system which got under way really from a standing start and there was more testing being done in the uk than virtually any other country around the world. the difficulty though is that of course, it can sometimes take quite a while either to book a tester to get the results of a test, so the accusation for the position is that this is contributing to the virus getting out of control with these latest figures today around 6000 cases in the past 24 hours. the government, borisjohnson cases in the past 24 hours. the government, boris johnson himself said yesterday that the increase in infections had very little to do with the test, track and trace, it's about people spreading the illness to each other, hence the restrictions that he is bringin

dido harding has said a million people a day asking for tests.ity of just over moment? just over... we have a capacity ofjust over 250,000. over 200,000. more than 200,000 actual people being tested? yes it was 226,000. set is about 2096 of people asking for tests every day. tha nkfully asking for tests every day. thankfully the demand has come down a bit this week since the figures that dido talked about and the reason for that is that we saw this spike in people who do not have symptoms and are not eligible coming forward for a test and we have been clearer and more stringent about prioritising the tests for people who need them and have symptoms. sorry to jump who need them and have symptoms. sorry tojump in, for a long time we we re sorry tojump in, for a long time we were told it was your civic duty to get tested... if you have symptoms. bet presumably if you have been in a place where you are worried if you have picked it up. so if you do not have picked it up. so if you do not have symptoms, don't get tests? we have symptoms, don't get tes

dido harding has said a million people a day are asking for tests.ity ofjust over 250,000. yeah, not capacity, but people. over 200,000. more than 200,000 actual people being tested at the moment every day? yesterday it was 226,000. so that is about 20% of those asking for tests every day. thankfully the demand has come down a bit this week since the figures that dido talked about and the reason for that is that we saw this spike in people who do not have symptoms and are not eligible coming forward for a test and we have been and are not eligible coming forward for a test. the labour leader, sir keir starmer has said that the pm should personally apologise for what he described as the near collapse of testing," saying that if he were the pm he would apologise for the fact that we are in this situation with testing." whatever measure the government takes, we will support it. we did that with lockdown. really? we did that with local restrictions and i have said that whatever measures are taken. but listen, if i was the prime minister, i would apologis

we heard from dido harding giving mps that it might evidence to mps yesterday, saying she was surprised about the scientific advice because many people, then you put all these children back in the classrooms together, they always get coughs and colds, the number of test results is going to go up. and that is, what she suggested it was completely false, that is not the scientific advice. if you look back at the royal society support on test entries and looking at the anticipated demand, the academy of medical sciences report about the winter surge, or even look at scotland, scotland open schools five and a half weeks ago, we were ahead of england and what you saw in the first two weeks with a tenfold increase in the number of young people been tested in the testing system having to expand to get all those tests processed. you just had to look at scotland in august or read either of those reports to know that testing would be your bottleneck. testing have always been the bottleneck since february. to say we did not know testing would be a problem does not reflect the scientific advice. pr

last night i had a constructive conference call with matt hancock, the uk health secretary, and dido hardinget fair access to the uk—wide laboratory capacity and discuss how we can resolve these issues. so i hope to see improvement over the next few days, but of course i will continue to provide updates. a court in vietnam has jailed four people in connection with the deaths of 39 vietnamese migrants found in a refrigerated trailer in britain last year. sentences ranged from 2.5 to 7.5 years. reports said they were found guilty of brokering and organising illegal migration. president trump has refused to acknowledge the role of climate change in the fires that have ravaged states on the us west coast. on a visit to california, mr trump again blamed poorforest management for the blazes, which have killed at least 35 people. meeting with mr trump, california's governor, gavin newsom, admitted state forest management could be better, but pointed out that more than half of california's land was under federal control. as they were briefed by state officials, president trump disputed some of what

scheme was a vital tool in helping to identify local outbreaks, and praised the work of baroness dido hardingto contain the virus. our political correspondent helen catt is at westminster. interesting pmqs, the prime minister being pressed on the context of the test and tray system and around what sort of financial support he is going to put in place for industries badly hit by that. i'm joined by the conservative mp, andrew griffiths. the labour mp and shadow health minister, justin madders. and munira wilson from the liberal democrats. before we get into the meat of pmqs, i wanted to ask you, your colleague writing in the guardian these new restrictions are about as far as he thinks he could ask his constituents to go, do you think that is the case and that is why borisjohnson hasn't got as far as scotland? nobody wants to introduce restrictions like this, that curtail the liberty of individuals and affect the lives of businesses, the economy so the government is doing so not to play. what is important rather than drawing abstract lines at particular moments in time is that there is a balan

dido harding has said a million people a day are asking for tests.t? just over... we have a capacity ofjust over 250,000. yeah, not capacity, but people. over 200,000. more than 200,000 actual people being tested at the moment every day? yesterday it was 226,000. so that is about 20% of those asking for tests every day. thankfully the demand has come down a bit this week since the figures that dido talked about and the reason for that is that we saw this spike in people who do not have symptoms and are not eligible coming forward for a test and we have been clearer and more stringent about prioritising the tests for people who need them and have symptoms. sorry tojump in, but for a long time we were told it was your civic duty to get tested if there was any possible... if you have symptoms. yes, but presumably also if you have been in a place where you were worried you might have picked it up. no, if you have symptoms... so if you do not have symptoms, under no circumstances... if in doubt, you used to say, if in doubt, don't get tested. ——get tested

sorry, it was just very striking and dido harding and neil ferguson today on bbc radio said they werea surge in demand for tests, which seems astonishing given that everyone knows as soon as schools go back there are the usual cough and colds and parents will be worried. of course, absolutely ridiculous. of course you knew once we went back to school teachers and pupils would need a lot of tests, because if any child gets a cough or cold orflu, then the whole school is on alert and of course everybody who has been near that child will need to be tested. it was blindingly obvious. but i would like to go back to something clive said about how countries have done it well and badly in different ways, very often according to their culture. this country has a particular reason why it is almost the worst in europe for deaths and almost the worst in terms of the economic hits and the unemployment hit we have taken. the reason is that we have had a decade of appalling austerity that has absolutely shredded our public health system and all of our systems, our health service has had the least in

dido harding, the head of the nhs test and trace programme, has been facing some tough questioning from new figures which show that only a third of tests carried out at community sites were processed within 2a hours in the week up to the ninth of september. that's the lowest turnaround rate sincejune. baroness harding said there was now more demand for tests than expected. our health editor hugh pym has more. i will show you where to step. that's ok. sarah and her son are looking forward to a new member of the family. she is 41 weeks pregnant and was due to have an important midwife appointment but she had to postpone it as she had a cough and needed a test, but couldn't get one on the official website. it's really important, just to put my mind at ease that everything's ok with the baby, and it's frustrating, you know, not knowing, not being able to get the care and not being able to get the test. i don't know how my care's going to proceed. paul, who is a teacher, has been trying and failing to book a test for members of his family. four days of trying to get testing and nothing at al

dido harding, the head of the nhs test and trace programme, has been facing some tough questioning fromgures, which show that only a third of tests carried out at community sites were processed within 24 hours in the week up to the 9th of september. that's the lowest turnaround rate sincejune. baroness harding said there was now more demand for tests than expected. 0ur health editor hugh pym has more. i will show you where to step. that's ok. sarah and her son are looking forward to a new member of the family. she is 41 weeks pregnant and was due to have an important midwife appointment but she had to postpone it as she had a cough and needed a test, but couldn't get one on the official website. it's really important, just to put my mind at ease that everything 0k important, just to put my mind at ease that everything ok with the baby, and it's frustrating, you know, not knowing, not being able to get the care and not being able to get the care and not being able to get the care and not being able to get the test. i don't know how my care's going to proceed. paul, who isa care's going t

we had a member of dido harding's team mothers as were knocking on doors, but they had not seen it eitherurs and misinformation being spread is something i would like to see the does to a lot more about. —— see the government do a lot more about. what do you mean by a lot more? we had the lettuce and inquiry, the government implemented that and they failed to implement the second part, which was to bring social media in line with mainstream media —— we had the leveson inquiry. they have had ample time to get their house in order and have failed miserably. this stuff is so divisive, so that would be one of my priorities. can i ask caroline johnson about that, as a member of the governing party, in terms of the message that debbie abrahams has seen on social media, that is really alarming and completely untrue. but intent about being allowed to proliferate on social media, where is the government with bringing the social media companies more into line? it is clearly an horrific rumour, manifestly untrue, the mainstream media will notably making sure everyone is aware that that rumour is com

dido harding, the head of nhs test and trace, yesterday, in front of a committee, basically saying they in demand we had seen in recent weeks, none of the modelling and presented that, and therefore there had been a mismatch between the number number they can process on the rise in demand. at labour say this was highly predictable. jon ashworth, the shadow health secretary, suggesting earlier this morning, when talking to the bbc, that the failure in his view of the testing syste m failure in his view of the testing system is to some extent why ministers are now looking at the possibility of restrictions nationwide. 0k, thank you very much for that. jessica parker in westminster. scientists say a rapid coronavirus test has been developed, that can accurately diagnose an infection within 90 minutes, without needing a specialist laboratory. the device is already being used in eight nhs hospitals and the government has ordered more. it's most useful for helping to quickly identify people with covid—i9 in hospitals, rather than mass testing. ministers will set out further details today of t

call, a constructive conference call last night with matt hancock, the uk health secretary and dido hardingto the uk wide laboratory capacity and also discuss how we can resolve these issues. i hope to see improvement over the next few days but i will of course continue to provide updates. more than 400 pupils at a school in somerset are self—isolating after two students tested positive for coronavirus. children at bishop fox's school in taunton were told to stay home after a student in year 7 — and another in year 11 — were infected. a statement on the school's twitter account said a deep cleaning process would be undertaken at the school before students return next week. soaring rates of alcohol abuse in england are placing too much pressure on addiction services, according to the royal college of psychiatrists. the number of people drinking high—risk levels of alcohol has almost doubled since the start of the pandemic — and the college says deep cuts made to addiction services mean patients could miss out on treatment. the government says it has increased public health spending by £3.2 b

dido harding said they did not protect the surgeon demand and the capacity was not able to meet it.u in your household. it'll be interesting to see what borisjohnson has to say about that, given the clear warnings we have heard about how social interactions are contributing to the spread of the virus. we are seeing pictures of the house of commons chamber. boris johnson and pictures of the house of commons chamber. borisjohnson and sir keir starmer are sitting there on the government and opposition benches. while we wait for proceedings to start, a quick thought given that we are looking at the house of commons, will mps have a chance to vote on any of the measures that might be introduced today? no, but we will look ahead to the covid act will be up look ahead to the covid act will be upfora look ahead to the covid act will be up for a vote in terms of its renewal over the next week. there has been clear signs from conservative mps feel that the government is taking too draconian an approach to introducing measures. they want things to be more fully debated in parliament, stress te

has he fixed the problems with the welsh system and is it true as dido harding said that people willis so—called moonshot tests? we are not only fixing the problems but we are building four more lighthouse labs and on the machines in question, that we needed to supply, we have supplied them and we are moving forward and i'm confident that we will have the capacity to do another 500,000 tests per day by the end of october. that is the extraordinary thing. on the ambition for mass testing it is a great thing and the government will support it. studio: we will now pull away from the house of commons. boris johnson we will now pull away from the house of commons. borisjohnson outlining his plans as the uk enters a second wave of the coronavirus, after further outlining a tightening of restrictions across england to try to curb the spread of the virus. borisjohnson to curb the spread of the virus. boris johnson told mps to curb the spread of the virus. borisjohnson told mps that the country is at a perilous turning point. he said now is the time to act. measures are likely to last for the

i had a constructive conference call last night with matt hancock, the uk health secretary and dido hardinghe techno —— micro technical bit of everything, i wa nt to micro technical bit of everything, i want to provide some context before providing the update for the number of people in hospital with covid. if you cast your mind back a couple of weeks if you're one of the regular viewers of this briefing, i indicated then that we were looking at how we report on the numbers of people in hospital. under that measure, the one that we have been using up until now, lots of people are classified as being covid patients even if they have recovered from covid and are now being treated for a condition that is unrelated to it. that old measure provided accurate information at the peak of the epidemic of this first phase back earlier in the year when there we re back earlier in the year when there were around 1500 covid patients in hospital but as the pandemic has progressed, we have been reporting a higher number of hospital cases than is probably justified and higher number of hospital cases than i

you were watching the science and technology committee grill dido harding.phasis, certainly at the beginning, on what seems to be a time lag between getting a test and getting the result, and the government is simply not meeting this target. this is one ofa not meeting this target. this is one of a few issues with the test and trace system, because obviously if you got concerns over having coronavirus to go and get a test and then you don't know when you've got these results, you're in a limbo land. there is this focused to get these results delivered quickly, and these results delivered quickly, and the prime ministers that a few weeks ago the turnaround targets are very important, but we got dated today that shows just... compared to two thirds last week. hospital testings, including nhs staff as well, 89% of those are turned around within 2a hours. it's the committee detecting times which are lagging a little bit here. the measure that is often quoted by government ministers, where the results are back the next day, 55% of people received the results with