Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department make of the level of risk that the covid-19 tracking app could be hacked; and what steps he has taken to protect the app against such attacks.

Existing law and National Health Service standards set out a framework of protective measures to ensure the NHS COVID-19 app meets the level required to keep data secure.

We have worked closely with the National Cyber Security Centre throughout the development of the app to ensure its security. For example, we have published the app’s source code, allowing security experts from across the world to scrutinise the app and to recommend improvements for us to implement. This is in addition to the continual monitoring, review and oversight that is undertaken by the Department and NHS.