Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 8 June 2026 (HL57), on what specific date the current national contract for the learning from lives and deaths – people with a learning disability and autistic people reviews (LeDeR) programme expire; and whether that contract will be renewed on a national basis.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to improving outcomes for people with a learning disability and autistic people, and we recognise the important role that Learning from lives and deaths – people with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) plays in driving service improvements and tackling health inequalities. We remain committed to reviewing every death that is notified to the LeDeR programme and ensuring that learning is shared.
The current contract between NHS England and King’s College London and their academic partners for producing a national LeDeR report ends on 31 October 2026. We will provide further information on next steps in due course.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to improve access to NHS sight tests for adults with learning disabilities; and what consideration they have given to including learning disability as a risk factor in the eligibility criteria.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning National Health Service sight testing services and for considering how any identified inequalities in access to services should be addressed. Guidance issued by the College of Optometrists sets out that when examining patients with learning difficulties, optometrists should use tests that are appropriate to the patient’s needs.
Children and young people with learning disabilities and/or autism are also eligible for free NHS sight tests, where ICBs are commissioning a service within a special educational setting.
Adults with learning disabilities may qualify for free NHS sight tests under existing exemptions, including being in receipt of income-related benefits or through the NHS Low Income Scheme. There are no plans to change eligibility for NHS sight tests.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the Supreme Court's judgment regarding the Cheshire West Framework (UKSC/2025/0042), what steps they plan to take to ensure that families of individuals who no longer qualify for automatic, non-means-tested legal aid under section 21A of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 are not financially penalised or prevented from challenging restrictive care regimes via standard welfare applications.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is clear that access to justice is fundamental, particularly where proceedings engage an individual’s liberty and other fundamental rights. That is why legal aid is available for the most serious health and welfare matters before the Court of Protection. The Ministry of Justice is considering the Supreme Court’s judgment and will review any further guidance issued from the Department of Health and Social Care to assess the impact on current legal aid provision.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what systemic vulnerabilities in NHS England’s procurement and digital oversight frameworks permitted Palantir staff to gain access to identifiable patient data, given that the relevant Data Protection Impact Assessment explicitly stated such access would be restricted to NHS personnel.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) safely connects information from different systems across the National Health Service into a single, secure environment. This allows staff to co-ordinate care better to improve outcomes for patients.
The NHS FDP is delivering for the NHS, helping people get the care they need quicker and more efficiently. Since March 2024, more than 100,000 additional patients have been supported to undergo procedures in theatres partly by increasing theatre utilisation. Nearly 94,000 people have been supported on their cancer journey, with 7% seeing a reduction in the time it took to diagnose their cancer. There has been a 14% decrease in delays discharging patients staying in hospital for more than seven days, freeing up beds for those who need them most. NHS England publishes quarterly information on the benefits realised from the NHS FDP, which is available at the NHS.UK website.
To date, 24 integrated care board clusters and 168 NHS trusts have signed up to the NHS FDP.
NHS England operates robust procurement, governance, and information governance frameworks, with strong data processing and data protection terms embedded within associated third‑party contracts, to ensure that access to patient data is strictly controlled and only permitted where necessary for defined purposes.
NHS England remains a Controller for the NHS FDP, including acting as the Data Controller for the National Data Integration Tenant (NDIT). NHS England and participating organisations each act as Controllers in respect of the data they contribute to and use within their own tenancies on the platform. Suppliers such as Palantir Technologies UK Ltd act solely as data processors, acting only on the instructions of the relevant Controller.
Access to identifiable patient data within the NDIT is restricted. It is granted on a role-based, purpose-specific, and time-limited basis. Access is subject to multiple layers of approval, auditing, and oversight. This includes director-level approval for administrative access, continuous monitoring and logging of activity, and formal governance through the NDIT Design and Governance Group.
NHS England has acknowledged that elements of the published NDIT Data Protection Impact Assessment did not fully reflect these operational arrangements, including wording that referred to NHS staff rather than authorised users and support staff more broadly.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what specific mechanisms exist within the NHS Federated Data Platform contract to hold Palantir accountable for accessing identifiable patient records; and why government compliance systems failed to enforce the promised boundaries between external corporate contractors and the new single patient record environment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) safely connects information from different systems across the National Health Service into a single, secure environment. This allows staff to co-ordinate care better to improve outcomes for patients.
The NHS FDP is delivering for the NHS, helping people get the care they need quicker and more efficiently. Since March 2024, more than 100,000 additional patients have been supported to undergo procedures in theatres partly by increasing theatre utilisation. Nearly 94,000 people have been supported on their cancer journey, with 7% seeing a reduction in the time it took to diagnose their cancer. There has been a 14% decrease in delays discharging patients staying in hospital for more than seven days, freeing up beds for those who need them most. NHS England publishes quarterly information on the benefits realised from the FDP, which is available at the NHS.UK website.
To date, 24 integrated care board clusters and 168 NHS trusts have signed up to the NHS FDP
NHS England’s contract for the NHS FDP includes clear data protection, confidentiality, and security requirements. These contract terms are based on Government Legal Department model terms and conditions, which provide robust provisions on data processing, including the enforcement of United Kingdom data protection laws and regulations. Suppliers such as Palantir Technologies UK Ltd act solely as data processors under NHS England’s instructions. Access to patient data is governed by contractual controls alongside technical safeguards, including role‑based access, approval processes, audit logging, and monitoring.
NHS England has acknowledged that elements of the published National Data Integration Tenant Data Protection Impact Assessment did not fully reflect these operational arrangements, including wording that referred to NHS staff rather than authorised users and support staff more broadly.
The Single Patient Record is a separate programme to the NHS FDP and still being designed. No decisions have been made as to how it will be delivered, or which suppliers will be involved.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government why a significant change allowing Palantir contractors access to identifiable NHS patient data remained undisclosed until it was exposed by external pressure.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) safely connects information from different systems across the National Health Service into a single, secure environment. This allows staff to co-ordinate care better to improve outcomes for patients.
The NHS FDP is delivering for the NHS, helping people get the care they need quicker and more efficiently. Since March 2024, more than 100,000 additional patients have been supported to undergo procedures in theatres partly by increasing theatre utilisation. Nearly 94,000 people have been supported on their cancer journey, with 7% seeing a reduction in the time it took to diagnose their cancer. There has been a 14% decrease in delays discharging patients staying in hospital for more than seven days, freeing up beds for those who need them most. NHS England publishes quarterly information on the benefits realised from the NHS FDP, which is available at the NHS.UK website.
To date, 24 integrated care board clusters and 168 NHS trusts have signed up to the NHS FDP.
NHS England has been transparent that suppliers such as Palantir Technologies UK Ltd act as data processors under its instructions, and that access to data is governed by strict contractual, technical, and organisational controls.
A small number of supplier personnel have limited access to identifiable data where necessary to support essential platform administration and maintenance functions. This access is tightly controlled, and subject to approval and audit.
NHS England has identified that aspects of the published National Data Integration Tenant (NDIT) Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) did not fully reflect these operational arrangements, including wording that referred to NHS staff rather than authorised users and support staff more broadly.
NHS England is updating the NDIT DPIA and associated documentation to ensure full alignment with current practice, alongside strengthening permissions, audit controls, and governance processes.
This did not represent a change in access arrangements, but a need to clarify and improve how these arrangements were described in public documentation.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they require to ensure the Care Quality Commission (CQC) updates its digital infrastructure so that statutory notifications of deaths can be automatically aggregated and analysed by a service user’s specific condition; and what assessment it has made of the CQC's response to a Freedom of Information request that it cannot extract data on the deaths of learning disabled or autistic individuals without a manual review of over 133,000 records.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving statutory notifications was in scope of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) transformation programme undertaken between 2021 and 2023. One of the improvements from the programme was an increase in the range of data fields collected as part of notifications for reporting.
Through recent upgrades, it is now possible for the CQC to aggregate and analyse death notifications, including for a person with a learning disability, or an autistic person.
The CQC’s response to the mentioned Freedom of Information request was given under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. The CQC is currently reviewing the response provided to the requester and will contact them directly regarding the information provided to them.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions have been brought by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) since 2009 regarding the unsafe or inadequate care of people with a learning disability; and what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the CQC’s enforcement strategy for learning disabilities in this regard.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 2009, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has brought 124 criminal prosecutions to date. 111 of these prosecutions have been brought since April 2015, when the CQC was given statutory criminal enforcement powers under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
Following a review of their data, the CQC can confirm that of these 111 criminal prosecutions, 12 cases have related to the care and treatment of people with a learning disability, and this could have been where the person receiving the care and treatment was a person with a learning disability or where the provider specialised in the care and treatment for people with a learning disability.
All 12 prosecutions relate to breaches of Regulations 12 and 22 of the 2014 Regulations for failure to provide safe care and treatment causing or exposing a service user to avoidable harm. The CQC also criminally enforced a further case regarding a Regulation 11 breach, for failure to obtain appropriate consent. The CQC issued two Fixed Penalty Notices, which is an alternative criminal sanction at the CQC’s disposal.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether a decision has been made on whether (1) the Department of Health and Social Care, (2) integrated care boards, (3) hospital trusts, or (4) individual GPs, will hold primary statutory data controllership for patient data processed in the single patient record; if not, what are the specific legal and operational models currently under consideration; and on what date they intend to publish the final legal framework establishing data controllership for that programme.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Single Patient Record (SPR) will improve outcomes for patients by giving professionals access to all the key information they need to deliver care, in one place, affording safer decision-making with fewer information gaps. No decision has been made on the arrangements for how the SPR will be delivered, and what the implications are for data controllership.
We will be consulting with general practitioners through a series of national engagement events starting in June 2026. This follows our programme of deliberative engagement with the public in 2024, which aimed to understand how a single patient record could be designed in a way that maximises benefits and is trusted by the public; the outcomes from this engagement are helping to shape our approach to the SPR.
It is in the best interest of all parties to have an agreed position on key issues such as data controllership. Data controllership is a specific legal term under UK General Data Protection Regulation that reflects the reality on the ground of who decides what data is collected and how it is used. In effect, a data controller is a decision-maker on the use of data and is accountable for its use.
The following points are our starting position, which we look forward to discussing with the profession.
Health and care organisations will remain data controllers for the data they hold in their practices, and what they share with SPR, to provide services to their patients.
Regulations made under the bill will require relevant health and care organisations, including general practices, to share relevant data with the SPR for the purpose of making it available to clinicians in different care settings, to improve the care of their patients.
Where, in accordance with the regulations, the SPR operator determines the means and purposes of processing data in the SPR, they will also become a data controller, with responsibilities to comply with the data protection legislation.
There is no date for publication of any legal or governance frameworks which will apply, although these will be published before any data is processed within the SPR.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether Integrated Care Boards will be required to include an executive director with specific, named responsibility for learning disabilities within the new NHS structure.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to improving outcomes for people with a learning disability and have set clear expectations of local systems to drive this forward. NHS England has published statutory guidance which makes clear that each integrated care board (ICB) is expected to have an executive lead for learning disability and autism who will support the board in meeting their duties in relation to people with a learning disability and autistic people. The guidance on executive lead roles within ICBs remains in place and there are no plans to change this.