[shrikant]

The core data platform for NHS Test and Trace was not Excel based at all. It was a reasonably simple but solid AWS setup using S3, Glue and the smallest Redshift instance at the time, on top of which were Tableau/Quicksight/PowerBI dashboards. Some organisations insisted on enabling an "export to CSV" feature which was...not a good idea for so many reasons, and Public Health England (PHE) in the article found out one of those reasons the hard way.

[OliverGuy]

Have you got a source for the s3/glue/redshift bit?

[shrikant]

Page 68 of this PDF (https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05...), section G2 titled "Testing and Operations Data" has some high level information. I know the details because I designed and built the first version when I was at Deloitte, so I suppose it depends on how much you believe me...