Health: Confidential Patient Information

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My noble friend is correct. The UK has a unique advantage in being able to link patients’ data records for the purposes of research and for effective healthcare commissioning. It would be extremely concerning if European law prevented that. I believe and hope that patients will be encouraged that there will be no abuse of identifiable information. The controls around this are very strict and, in the main, only anonymised data are required for research purposes.

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)]

Can the Minister explain if there are circumstances in which personal confidential data might be used and analysed, such as in a public health emergency, and what the safeguards are surrounding that access?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, there are circumstances in which potentially identifiable data can be released, but they are very severely circumscribed. A public health emergency is one, but Section 251 of the National Health Service Act 2006 could also allow identifiable information to be shared for specific purposes. However, the controls around that are extremely strict and the only people who can take that decision are the Secretary of State and the Health Research Authority—and then only after expert advice from the Confidentiality Advisory Group.