According to The Times, check-in data from tens of millions of people who visited pubs, cafes and restaurants has barely been used by the government’s official contact-tracing programme. Venues were required to record customer details to ensure they were “covid secure” as a condition of being allowed to reopen at the end of the national lock-down in July. Hundreds of millions of visits have been logged but almost none of that data has been requested or accessed by NHS Test and Trace.

The technology companies that designed tracing systems for bars and restaurants said the failure to use the data was a missed opportunity and the information could have been used to suppress local outbreaks.

JD Wetherspoon has logged 16.7 million customers’ details in its 850 pubs but has had only 35 requests for tracing information from local or national health officials. A spokesman said Wetherspoon had had one case of probable transmission between four staff at a pub. The health authorities issued a press release asking customers to watch out for symptoms if they had been to the pub, but did not “activate” test and trace by contacting customers.

The companies that built tracing systems allowing venues to reopen expressed surprise they had received little or no contact from the official network even as infections developed into a second wave. Airship, a data-processing business whose 340 clients include Leon and Pret A Manger, registered more than eight million visits to 10,000 venues but knew of only two that had been contacted by health officials. Airship chief executive Dan Brookman said: “It seems there was never a system in place to use any of this data to try to stop the spread of the virus — it is a missed opportunity. It seems to have been a box-ticking exercise, another piece of noise to give the impression that action was being taken, but actually no action followed.”

Wireless Social designed track-and-trace systems for its clients and recorded more than three million customers’ details. It said it had received no requests for data. Julian Ross, chief executive of Wireless Social, whose clients include Fullers and YO!, said the track-and-trace system had been “window dressing”, adding: “I don’t believe it had an infrastructure in the background that was ready to process this data.”

UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said Public Health England data for the past week showed venues had been linked to only 2.7% of new outbreaks. She added: “The limited amount of contact from health officials is proof we are not the problem.”

The Department of Health and Social Care said: “Maintaining records of staff, customers and visitors is vital to help NHS Test and Trace identify and contain clusters or outbreaks of covid-19 linked to particular venues.”

My thanks to Propel Hospitality Info for this item; there are many more on their website.