Draft Health and Social Care Information Centre (Transfer of Functions, Abolition and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2023

Lord Mackinlay of Richborough Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2023 General Committees

[Craig Mackinlay (South Thanet) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Latham.

Interoperability of data across different systems in the NHS between GP surgeries and hospitals has always been somewhat of a vexed issue. I note that the regulations relate to NHS England. A number of differences were highlighted during the covid period relating to certification in NHS Scotland—I note that no member of the SNP is present. Are moves afoot to make sure that data fields maintain some degree of regularity across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? If the worst happens to any of us, our constituents or our families when we are in one of the devolved areas, can we expect that there is half a chance of data readability across the systems in different parts of the United Kingdom? Or, as time goes on, are processes getting more and more diverse and more complex? That would be a great sadness in my view.