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It is vital the government gives accurate and up-to-date data on spikes in coronavirus cases to local authorities so they can act fast to save lives and protect the NHS, doctors have said.

The British Medical Association said this was all the more "crucial" without a functioning contact-tracing app in place.

It comes after ministers faced criticism for the handling of the surge of cases in Leicester, which was forced back into a stricter lockdown on Tuesday.

A spike in coronavirus infections has meant 10% of all COVID-19 cases in the country have come from the city.

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It is the first area in England to have a local lockdown as part of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's "whack-a-mole" strategy for tackling local outbreaks.

Unlike the rest of England, pubs, restaurants, cafes and hair salons in Leicester will not be allowed to reopen on Saturday, with people advised against all but essential travel.

The BMA has called for clarity about how regional spikes will be managed in the future - and has made a series of demands ahead of the lockdown being eased further this weekend.

It wants the government to set "metric trigger points" for when action will be taken to reintroduce local and national restrictions.

The BMA said this would not only take into account the regional reproductive number or R rate - the number of people that one infected person, on average, will pass the virus on to - but also the level of infections in communities.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the BMA Council, said: "The prime minister has talked about a 'whack-a-mole' strategy to tackle local outbreaks, but this is no use if the people leading the response on the ground - be they public health teams or local leaders - are not given the most accurate up-to-date data possible.

"This is crucial to allow swift action and to protect lives and the health service, and something that is not happening right now.

"This is all the more important given that the 'world leading' test-and-trace app is not in place, meaning local leaders and teams armed with up-to-date information will be vital in containing spread of outbreaks."

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Labour MP Yvette Cooper tweeted that health authorities in her constituency in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, had been trying to get hold of local Pillar 2 testing data - the results from swab tests of the wider population - but had not been able to.

She wrote: "Our local public health teams, council, NHS doctors & managers in Wakefield have had to fight for months to try to get this data. In public health crisis, most important thing is knowing where infection is. Appalling & incomprehensible that basic info hasn't been provided.

"The idea this could have been Ministerial choice rather than failure of competence is even more shocking. What on earth is going on? Transparency & trust are basic currencies for dealing with public health crises. Pls, pls Govt, dont keep screwing this up."

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Leicester West MP Liz Kendall responded to her tweet, claiming that reports suggested the "decision not to publish this crucial data was made by ministers".

"We urgently need to know whether this is the case and ensure in future, all data is fully shared. Bcos whats happening in Leicester could be happening elsewhere," she tweeted.

Business minister Nadhim Zahawi said "it is always possible to give more detail" to local authorities on the extent of the virus in their areas.

He told Sky News: "It is in our interests to be as transparent as we can be - as long as the data is robust... which is why we are working with the UK Statistics Authority to publish as much data as we can. But what you don't want to do is publish data that you are not certain of or is not robust."

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Mr Zahawi said the test-and-trace system - the human workforce trying to contain new cases - is "effective" and that 100,000 people had been identified and self-isolated in the last three weeks.

The minister refused to be drawn on where the data was pointing to next as a potential area of concern.

Mr Zahawi said there had been spikes elsewhere which the government has dealt with, such as in Weston-super-Mare, and that he was confident the surge in cases in Leicester will also be brought "back under control".

"If there are spikes then we will deal with them and work with local authorities... at the moment our focus is very much on Leicester," he added.

The number of patients and staff testing as positive in hospitals and Public Health England labs, are known as Pillar 1 figures, and positive cases identified in testing centres, are known as Pillar 2.

Leicester City Council did not previously have access to the second set of figures, but this is now being provided.