Those are the findings of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, which has published a highly critical report on the scheme.

The MP said that the cost was staggering and the taxpayers were being treated like a kind of cash machine.

But the prime minister defended the system as our health editor Hugh Pym reports Now a testing site today now part of everyday life, but it's cost a lot of money to get where we are.

And a highly critical report by MPs has fueled a new debate on what test and trace has achieved.

It was raised at Prime Minister's questions.

The government is throwing a staggering 37 billion at a test and trade system that we know has made barely any difference.

The prime minister defended its performance because thanks to NHS test and trace that we're able to send kids back to school and begin cautiously and irreversibly to reopen our economy and restart our lives.

The 37 billion budget is over two years, the report says.

It isn't clear that's making a measurable difference.

It says the system has too many expensive contractors, including private consultants.

2.5 1000 was still on the books last month, with one paid more than £6000 a day.

Lots of money was being thrown at lots of projects.

And, you know, for many cases there are big questions about how that money has been allocated, how it's been spent.

It's worth remembering that early on in the first wave, there was nothing like this.

The test and trace network had to be created from scratch.

The key issue is, has it been as effective as it should have been?

There were long waits at testing centers and for results when infections rose rapidly in September and October, and the system failed to keep up with people sometimes asked to drive 100 miles or more to get a test.

It's an absolute joke.

Three kids out of school just have to go back home and try again.

I guess the performance figures have improved since those problems last year.

Nearly 83% of test results came back in 24 hours in the last reported week in February, compared with only around 33 a half percent one week in October.

The proportion of close contacts reached was more than 93% in late February, compared with about 60% back in October.

The number of daily tests carried out has more than doubled since the New year to over a million yesterday, though this includes those done in schools which have reopened.

Yes, we do a very large number of tests.

We successfully reach a very large number of people to ask them to self isolate.

That's what test and trace is set up to do.

So.

This report accuses us of delivering what we said we were going to do to build the service that the country is needed in this extraordinary crisis that we're all facing.

Some argue that local council officials knocking on doors rather than a national call center system is the best way to reach contacts of those who test positive.

Health leaders in England say both approaches are required.