Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to establish an ethics board to oversee the NHS COVID-19 Data Store.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS England is the sole controller of data held within the NHS COVID-19 Data Store and for any data legally shared with them under the notice issued by the Secretary of State under the NHS Control of Patient Information (COPI) Regulations 2002. The notices allow permitted organisations, under Regulation 3(3) of the COPI regulations, to process data only for COVID-19 related purposes. The Department has no plans to establish an ethics board for the NHS COVID-19 Data Store.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the reported award of a £108 million contract for personal protective equipment to PestFix, where and when the contract was advertised for tender; whether the contract was awarded under Regulation 32(2)c of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/102) which covers Direct Award due to reasons of extreme urgency; if so, how the Direct Award met the requirement under Regulation 32(2)(c) that the events were unforeseeable, given the contract was awarded on 10 April and the UK had reportedly been warned about a shortage of PPE supplies at a meeting with the World Health Organisation on 4 February; why a 12-month contract was awarded; whether they have supported PestFix’s cashflow, and if so, by how much; and why the contract has not yet been published.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The award of this contract is the subject of a Judicial Review which has been brought against the Department. The Department is taking legal advice and considering its response. In these circumstances it would inappropriate to respond to the issues and points raised in this question as this might prejudice the Department’s legal position.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the (1) mean, (2) median, (3) 25th percentile, (4) 75th percentile, and (5) variance, of the time taken between testing for COVID-19 and receiving the result.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to establish an ethics board to oversee the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Research and Ethics Committee (REC) at the Health Research Authority granted ethical approval for the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID) on 16 April 2020.. The REC made no recommendation to establish an ethics board to oversee the NCCID. Access to data contained in the NCCID is governed by a committee of independent experts, which includes patient representatives, and is tasked with ensuring that applications comply with high ethical standards.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether patients’ consent will be required before their data can be collected for the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The data collected for the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database is done so under the Control of Patient Information notices issued by the Secretary of State for Health. Consequently, no patient consent is required to collect the data from National Health Service trusts. No patient identifiable data is shared with developers. Images and clinical data points are anonymised before they are sent from each NHS trust to the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust for collation. The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust further verifies that any identifiable data burnt onto the images is removed. Once this step is completed, the anonymised data is uploaded on a cloud-based repository owned by NHSX, and having NHS England as the data controller.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to use powers conferred by the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (1) to operate the COVID-19 track and trace system, (2) to monitor or enforce lockdown restrictions, and (3) to monitor or enforce quarantine requirements on individuals.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government are considering a range of options for managing the effect of the outbreak of COVID-19. A careful assessment of any implications for civil liberties (including the impact on human rights, equality and privacy) will be an important part of those considerations.
The national lockdown measures were eased on 4 July and whilst police have powers of enforcement, the policy relies on the four Es approach; engage, explain, encourage, enforce. Where necessary fixed penalty charge notices can be issued in certain circumstances.
The Investigatory Powers Act makes clear that the powers it provides for can only be used for specific statutory purposes, where it is necessary and proportionate to do so.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether NHS England or NHSX is liaising with the Intellectual Property Office and, if so, whether those discussions will result in publication of patent applications which flow from access to the COVID-19 datastore under the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS England and NHSX are not currently liaising with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) on the publication of patent applications resulting from access to the NHS COVID-19 Data Store under the Re-use of Public Sector Information (RUPSI) Regulations 2015. The IPO is responsible under United Kingdom law for granting UK patents. Patent applications are published by the IPO in the course of the application process as set out in the Patents Act 1977. NHS England and NHSX are keen to encourage healthcare innovations and would certainly discuss with the IPO on how that could be appropriately encouraged.
The NHS COVID-19 Data Store has its own controlled procedure for access where specific criteria related to COVID-19 purposes must be met. There is no uncontrolled access to data in the NHS COVID-19 Data Store. NHS England and NHSX would consider and respond to any request they may receive under the RUPSI Regulations, as those Regulations require.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government to what extent they retain ownership of any intellectual property related to the development of the NHSX contact tracing app.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The intellectual property associated with the National Health Service COVID-19 app is retained by the Department. In order to promote transparency, the source code for the app is published under version 3.0 of the Open Government Licence. This licence allows NHSX to make the code Open Source whilst retaining its intellectual property rights related to the development of the app.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether insights from the use of the NHSX contact tracing app will be stored in NHS England’s datastore; and, if so, how they will ensure that fair benefits are secured for data subjects where third-party access to the data results in commercial products and services being developed.
Answered by Lord Bethell
There are currently no plans for data from the NHSX COVID-19 app to be held in the NHS Data Store. The data a user chooses to submit will be held on a separate database, held to the highest security standards and will remain under the control of the Department and the National Health Service throughout.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether NHS England will require confirmation of any agreements that their academic partners might have entered into with corporate sponsors such that any resultant intellectual property rights generated from the NHSX contact tracing app would rest with the corporate sponsor rather than the applicant or their host institution.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHSX requires all academic partners working on the National Health Service COVID-19 app to complete a conflict of interest declaration as part of the onboarding process. The Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford has worked with NHSX in an advisory capacity during the crisis and has confirmed that no IP rests with corporate sponsors from the app programme.