The UK has been ranked at 27th position out of 100 countries in the Covid Data Transparency Index (CDTI) published by independent research group TotalAnalysis. Scoring just 54 per cent overall – an effective 3-star rating – it remains well below the 70 per cent level that TotalAnalysis argues all countries should attain ten months into the pandemic.

The Index ranks countries on a variety of Covid indicators, grouped into four key pillars – data transparency, coverage, usage and management. The research team at TotalAnalysis has been monitoring and extracting official Covid data from over 200 countries and their local regions on a daily basis since the outbreak of the pandemic.

For a country ranked 2nd in Europe in terms of GDP, the UK occupies 15th position in the European league table, trailing smaller countries, such as Finland, Estonia and Lithuania.

Mike Laflin, Director of Research, Total Analysis, said: “The UK has major issues in the areas of data management and transparency. The lack of data compatibility between national and regional data remains a major concern, while sudden adjustments and changing definitions have been a recurring theme.”

The UK scores just 46 per cent for data management – below Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan and just above Belarus. Lack of centralised data for all Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish regions also scored the UK down as did the lack of compatibility with the National Health Service (NHS) data.

The UK also scored poorly in data transparency, at 50 per cent, ranking just below Bahrain, Luxembourg and Sweden, as a result of frequent adjustments to data and sudden changes of definitions for testing and deaths. The definition of Covid-deaths was abruptly changed in August to those dying within 28 (rather than 60) days of testing positive, triggering a 5,000 reduction in total deaths and significant drop in the case fatality rate.

Richard Londesborough, Co-Founder, TotalAnalysis, said: “Data credibility is critical. Low levels of public trust in government data have resulted in compliancy issues across the UK. With strong regional variations and frequent changes to tiering restrictions – as we have seen today – the government has significant data management and transparency issues to address, especially with critical vaccination data on the horizon.”