Coronavirus: Dido Harding set to head agency replacing Public Health England

Baroness Dido Harding, who runs NHS England’s Test and Trace scheme, is set to take on another key role in the UK’s efforts to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

Health secretary Matt Hancock will reportedly announce on Tuesday that the Conservative peer will head the government’s new Institute for Health Protection, which will replace Public Health England.

The former chief executive of TalkTalk was appointed in May to lead England’s contact tracing programme, which relies on identifying people who have been in contact with a positive coronavirus case and getting them to self-isolate.

Since then, the programme has faced questions about performance and value for money.

An NHS app was said to be key to the scheme but has been beset by delays, with the launch of a new public trial announced just days ago.

Mr Hancock first suggested the app would be available in mid-May, but the government ditched efforts to develop its own technology in June amid accuracy issues and concerns about privacy.

Baroness Harding led telecoms giant TalkTalk when it suffered a massive cyber-attack in October 2015 when hackers accessed 157,000 customers’ details, including bank account numbers.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) fined TalkTalk £400,000 over the breach, which ultimately cost the company an estimated £77m.

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