NHS Test and Trace is paying 2,300 management consultants an AVERAGE of £163,000 EACH

Test and Trace consultants working for the NHS are being paid an average salary that surpasses the Prime Minister’s to help run the Government’s coronavirus prevention scheme, it has emerged.

The government-funded service currently employs 2,300 management consultants who are on an average pay of £163,000 – which exceeds Boris Johnson’s salary of around £150,000. 

The figures from the Department of Health and Social Care also show £375 million has been spent so far on private consultancy services.

It comes as Boris Johnson today announced the NHS will be able to give 200,000 jabs every day by next Friday as part of his ambitious lockdown-ending plans.

Test and Trace consultants are being paid an average pay of £163,000 a consultant – which exceeds Boris Johnson’s salary of around £150,000. (Stock image)

Health Minister Helen Whately released the figures, which reflect the number of consultants who were working at the start of November last year, in response to a question from Labour MP Andy Slaughter.

Mr Slaughter later told The Times: ‘These are staggering sums of public money being handed out to consultants with no scrutiny or explanation how they are chosen. 

‘As we enter the worst phase of the pandemic, if mistakes have been made these must be laid bare.’

Ms Whately also explained that consultant were being recruited from 73 different suppliers.

In November, it was revealed that Britain’s creaking Test and Trace system was still not reaching at least four in ten contacts of those testing positive for Covid-19. 

Figures showed that in cases managed either online via email or by telephone by private companies, Serco and Sitel, just 58.9 per cent of close contacts were reached.

Boris Johnson today announced the NHS will be able to give 200,000 jabs every day by next Friday as part of ambitious lockdown-ending plans.

It came after a BBC investigation claimed it could actually be as low as 50 per cent due to IT problems and delays in getting contact details for people to call.

Downing Street defended the ‘colossal’ achievements of Test and Trace but acknowledged improvements could be made.

A No 10 spokesman said at the time: ‘We are testing more people per head of population than any other European country and that will grow thanks to our increased testing capacity.’  

It comes as Boris Johnson today announced he would bring in the Army to bolster the UK’s coronavirus vaccination drive and claimed the NHS would be able to give 200,000 jabs every day by next Friday as part of ambitious lockdown-ending plans.

With the roll-out of vaccines the only light at the end of the tunnel, the Prime Minister reassured the public there would be enough doses available to get all the top priority groups immunised by mid-February.  

He also pledged to offer every care home resident a jab by the end of January and announced a new national online booking system that is hoped will speed up the process.

Mr Johnson’s mammoth jab pledge — which critics fear he won’t be able to deliver because it is over-ambitious — came moments after Britain recorded 1,162 Covid deaths in the second worst day of the pandemic. 

Department of Health data shows only April 21 had a worse death toll than today, when 1,224 victims were declared.