The public will accept the invasion of privacy entailed by a smartphone app which can trace their movements as part of the plan to ease the coronavirus lockdown, ministers believe.

The Government will introduce contact tracing at "large scale" as a way of easing lockdown restrictions, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said, as he told MPs the UK had "reached the peak" of its Covid-19 outbreak.

The NHS app, reportedly being developed in Yorkshire, could identify people who have been in proximity to a smartphone user who subsequently developed coronavirus symptoms and tell them to self-isolate.

This would potentially allow more targeted quarantine measures than the current blanket lockdown.

Asked about privacy concerns surrounding the app's future roll-out, First Secretary of State Dominic Raab said the Government was trying to "innovate the best we can to try and ease our way out of the next phase of this virus in a way that protects public health and also allows us to go back to an economic and social life as close to normal as possible".

He added: "I think people do understand that we're in an exceptional crisis and we need to take measures which we probably wouldn't think of doing if we weren't in this crisis."

Mr Hancock said he was confident the country was at the peak, but stressed that continued social distancing was needed to bring the number of new cases down.

The Cabinet minister told MPs that trials of the app were "going well" and said he was hopeful that, along with increased contact tracing, it would allow the country to "control the virus with fewer of the extraordinary social distancing measures" that are currently in place across the UK.

According to a report by the BBC, testing of the new technology was being carried out at RAF Leeming, a base in North Yorkshire.

The news outlet said the app currently tells users "you need to isolate yourself and stay at home" if they are deemed to be showing symptoms or have come into close contact with another app user who has Covid-19 symptoms.

The smartphone software uses bluetooth technology to determine proximity to those who might have contracted coronavirus.

The on-screen warning for those deemed to be at risk states: "If you're on public transport, go home by the most direct route, stay at least 2m away from people if you can... find a room where you can close the door (and) avoid touching people, surfaces and objects."

Scientific experts and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt have pressed the Government for more details on mass testing and contact tracing, which is a key route out of the UK lockdown.

By finding those who are infected with coronavirus and tracing their contacts - and isolating both - routes of onward transmission of Covid-19 can be slowed until a vaccine is found.

Mr Hancock said the Government was working "closely with some of the best digital and technological brains" on the contact tracing app.

He said: "The more people who sign up for this new app when it goes live, the better informed our response will be, and the better we can therefore protect the NHS."