Early Covid pandemic saw Number 10 sharing data on ‘scraps of paper’

“Spreadsheets”, “phone calls” and “people reading off scraps of paper onto whiteboards” constituted the government’s approach to data in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

The low-tech handling of vital statistics was branded a “mess” and a “shitshow” by senior figures at the heart of Downing Street, who also appear to have accused former health secretary Matt Hancock of “get[ting] away with throwing… random graph[s]” at prime minister Boris Johnson. There were also concerns raised that Johnson would be “winging it” without better briefings.

It has prompted concerns Britain could find itself in “real trouble” if it does not continue the best practice adopted during the virus outbreak.

Giving evidence to the UK’s Covid-19 inquiry on Tuesday, Gavin Freeguard, a freelance data consultant and special adviser at the Open Data Institute, revealed the out-of-date methods some organisations had still been using in 2020.

“There weren’t those reproducible pipelines and other ways of being able to share data more quickly and more easily,” he said.

“Instead, there were very fragmented processes – emails, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, phone calls, people reading off scraps of paper onto whiteboards in Downing Street, rather than having the flows there ready to go.”

He added: “When it [data] is coming from hundreds of different health organisations at a rate of knots, it’s much more difficult to keep hold of all of that if you’re having to copy and paste it.

“Public Health England at one point was compiling its line lists – that is a spreadsheet with a line for each patient from individual emails – from individual emails.

“A lot of those things should be much more automatic.”

The inquiry is now six days into its second module, focusing on the government’s response in the early stages of the pandemic.

Evidence heard during today’s hearing included messages from controversial former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings, who branded data reporting in the early days of the pandemic a “shitshow”.

The issues he raised in an email to a fellow Number 10 staffer dated 25 March 2020 – two days after the national lockdown was announced – included inconsistent or incomplete data on key measures including infection rates, intensive care bed availability, and the number of Covid deaths each day.

A reply to his email from a colleague identified to the inquiry as Tom Shinner agreed with his assessment, blaming “deliberate obfuscation” and “the boss letting MH et al get away with throwing him a random graph” among the reasons for poor data handling.

Discussing the message, inquiry counsel Andrew O’Connor KC said the “MH” referred to was “perhaps Matt Hancock”.

The same message also suggested: “We will pre-brief the PM for five minutes before coming into the room to tell him what we’re looking at, why it’s important and what he should ask.

“This is a must so he’s not just winging it.”

Ultimately, Downing Street’s data operation was improved with new personnel and “a few private companies who may have brought software”, Freeguard said.

The data expert singled out the team behind the government’s Covid dashboard for particular praise, calling it one of the UK’s success stories.

“There is now a generation [in government] who take this [data] really seriously because of what’s happened and that and hopefully the work of the inquiry will stop it sliding any further,” he said.

“If we can’t learn from that then I think we’re in real trouble.”

Not all initiatives were successful.

Earlier this year, openDemocracy revealed that an internal review had criticised the use of Foundry, the controversial database software provided to the NHS by digital giant Palantir.

The inquiry this morning heard claims of “internecine warfare” at Number 10 during the pandemic, prompting unfavourable comparisons with the battles between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

The inquiry continues.