Derry MP Colum Eastwood says Boris Johnson's obsession with avoiding Brexit extension risks COVID-19 contact tracing data cliff edge

Mr. Eastwood said there was a serious risk of the United Kingdom abruptly leaving the European Union's data-sharing regime if a new legal framework is not worked out by December.

Speaking during Prime Minister's questions at Westminister Mr. Eastwood said: "In Ireland, both jurisdictions are working hard to organise contact tracing on a north-south basis, but the Prime Minister’s obsession with avoiding a Brexit transition extension means we risk crashing out without a data-sharing framework, which will critically undermine our ability to protect people from COVID-19.

"When will he put the lives of people in our community above petty, narrow Brexiteer politics?"

Mr. Johnson replied: "I must respectfully disagree with the hon. Gentleman. We are working very closely not just with our colleagues in the Government in Northern Ireland but with our colleagues in Dublin.

"I had a very good conversation with Leo Varadkar the other day and we saw eye to eye on the way forward. There is a huge amount shared between the UK and Ireland, and it will continue to be so."

The matter was recently raised in the Stormont Assembly by the South Belfast SDLP MLA Matthew O'Toole, an erstwhile advisor to 10 Downing Street for HM Treasury.

Mr. O’Toole pointed out that at present the United Kingdom is still sharing information with the European Union.

“That is really important. At the minute, the UK is still in the information governance framework in the context of the EU. At the end of the year, we do not know what information governance framework we will be in. We will probably still be contact tracing and people will still be moving from Dundalk to Newry and Buncrana to Derry,” he said.

Mr. O’Toole asked the Health Minister Robin Swann if there were contingency plans in place to deal with a potential end to the current arrangements.

“Is there a risk that, if we leave the transition period without a deal and there is legal uncertainty around our information governance framework, that that would throw contact tracing, particularly in border areas, into risk?” he asked.

Mr. Swann said: “We think that there may be a legal basis on which we can share that information, but what detail and what level of information we share is still to be worked out. This is early days stuff, and this is new to this island, the UK and Europe when we look to how we start to do that level of contact tracing.”

Mr. Eastwood said: "The island of Ireland is a single epidemiological unit when it comes to fighting the COVID-19 crisis. There’s no place for constitutional politics or flag waving in this, it’s about saving lives. That’s why the contact tracing programme is critical for cross-border workers, border communities and our wider population.

“We need to be able to track the spread of the virus, identify vulnerable communities and isolate them to save lives. That will require a huge effort between the Northern Ireland Executive and the Irish Government to establish a joint tracing programme, ensure that our applications are compatible and, critically, to share information quickly. Anything that hinders the free flow of data will critically undermine the contact tracing process and put lives at risk.

“So it is a very serious matter when the British Government’s refuses to extend the transition period to ensure that we have an appropriate information governance framework that secures a reliable supply of sensitive data. We have argued for years that the scale of work that needs to be undertaken would demand a longer transition period. The COVID-19 crisis now means it’s a matter of life and death. No one should be willing to put narrow constitutional politics or flag waving ahead of the wellbeing of people on this island.

“The response from Boris Johnson to my question was deficient. A resolution to this issue must be reached, however long it takes.”