Daily Mail article on the 'Pingdemic'

"I have been lucky so far and have not been pinged, but if I am, and have to cancel people's appointments, I fear I could lose customers. "Something that really worries me is that it seems supermarkets do not require people to scan the app barcode, yet I have to get my customers to scan one. Supermarkets have hundreds of customers in the building at the same time, I have one customer at a time. Can you imagine how many of us would then be getting pings if you were made to scan a Supermarket test & trace barcode. The whole country would grind to a halt."

"The track and trace system is woefully inadequate and for many small businesses, especially those in the hospitality, events and retail sectors, it is crippling. "I have clients in these sectors and some could have more than 75% of their staff off at a time that when they need to be pulling out all the stops and starting to recover financially from this pandemic. "I have been asked advice on what to do from many clients and my advice is still the same - use common sense - talk to your teams and get them to make the decision on whether to trust the app. Put in extra H&S measures yourself like doing a LFT prior to any shift. "From working in hospitality for 15 years the passion from those that work in the industry is starting to get frazzled - they have been on furlough for months, now they get pinged to say the can't work and furlough payments have dropped."

"The Test & Trace App has been a disaster pretty much from the start, and the Government not legislating that isolation is necessary if pinged does show a lack of faith from the Government in its own app, which has cost however many millions to create. "We don't ever advise our team to ignore the app if pinged; as easy as it may be, I feel we have a responsibility to ensure we follow the guidance so we can all return to some normality as soon as possible. There's no doubt that trust from the public is paper thin currently."

I urge the government to provide urgent and clear guidance to businesses in the UK regarding furlough and self isolation rules for employees returning back to work from furlough after 19 July 2021. We will see widespread return to workplaces, particularly in those sectors hardest hit by the COVID-19 restrictions. Many of these employees when they return back to work from furlough will then be ‘pinged’ from the NHS COVID-19 App and the wide-reaching self-isolation rules during a month of misery that won’t end until 16 August at the earliest. The natural and obvious inclination from employers at this point would be to return affected employees back to the furlough. But the government themselves features confusing and conflicting guidance on whether this is allowed within the scope of the CJRS. Ultimately this means any employers moving individuals back to furlough at this point face a potential misuse of the furlough rules and the possibility of a financially crippling HMRC investigation that many businesses simply wouldn’t be able to survive. If affected individuals are being told to go home and isolate, then they will have to isolate up to 10 days with just statutory sick pay - which is nearly 75% less than the National Minimum Wage for workers aged 23 and over**. This discrepancy will clearly and disproportionately affect hard working, low income families the most. It is clear that furlough is going to be something employees will be pressing their employers for too, further cementing the immediacy and urgency of the situation. Many workplaces and offices have been effectively closed owing to COVID restrictions and furlough. Unless there is urgent intervention from the government, millions of workers will be isolating between now and 16 August. These are workplaces that are able to do daily testing and be under supervision of test and trace, which in itself would reduce the risk for employers who are in a state of uncertainty and confusion of how to balance the health risk to their employee and the financial risk to their businesses. *Based on NHS Test and Trace information to week ending 30 June 2021. ** Based on average 40 hour week at National Minimum Wage (£8.91 for those aged 23 years and over). £356.40. Statutory Sick Pay is £96.35 per week.