Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the scope of activities for which the Federated Data Platform is to be used; and who his Department plans to have access to that Platform.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department’s Joint Investment Committee approved the Federated Data Platform Outline Business Case, which provided details of the scope of the platform and the likely estimated benefits. The Federated Data Platform will be initially built on five use cases, selected based on the National Health Service strategic priorities, the immediate benefit that they will realise and the wider insights that they will be able to provide. These are: population health management; care coordination; elective recovery; vaccines; and immunisation and supply chain.
Access to data in the Federated Data Platform will always be controlled by NHS organisations and only those working in health and social care will be able to access the data.
It is envisaged that the primary users of the Federated Data Platform will be NHS hospitals, integrated care systems (ICSs) and NHS England. At ICS level, the benefits of the Federated Data Platform will also be realised by local authorities, local government and the third sector, who all contribute to providing health and care services.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what representations he has received from local NHS leaders on the proposed federated data platform.
Answered by Will Quince
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, regularly meets with a range of officials to advance transformational improvements across National Health Service data systems. These meetings include discussions on the proposed procurement of the Federated Data Platform.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost of training NHS staff to use the federated data platform; and whether those costs are included in the specified value of the contract.
Answered by Will Quince
The Federated Data Platform Programme in NHS England is working through the requirements for training, deployment support, and implementation to ensure that trusts, integrated care boards and NHS England are in a position to make full use of the Federated Data Platform capabilities.
Requirements for the ease of use and training solutions has been included within the platform procurement. A budget has been allocated to the Federated Data Platform programme to support the training and adoption support to trusts.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on how many patients in England have written to NHS trusts to ask that their NHS data is not uploaded to the federated data platform.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department and NHS England do not hold information relating to correspondence between patients and trusts in relation to the Federated Data Platform. Where applicable, National Data Opt Outs and Type 1 opt outs will apply to the Federated Data Platform. These opt-outs apply where confidential patient information is being processed for secondary purposes and will not apply to an individual's direct care.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking in the tendering process for the federated data platform contact to ensure that everyone working on the platform has an adequate level of security clearance.
Answered by Will Quince
Security clearance checks will be undertaken for all staff as required once a preferred supplier has been identified for the Federated Data Platform, in line with standard practices.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Federated Data Platform, whether (a) people or (b) organisations with access to the platform to access information that could identify patients.
Answered by Will Quince
The primary users of the Federated Data Platform will be National Health Service hospitals, integrated care systems (ICS) and NHS England. At ICS level, the benefits of the Federated Data Platform will also be realised by local authorities, local government, and the third sector providing health and care services, although they will not access the data within the Federated Data Platform. Only private companies contracted to NHS or social care to deliver services will have access to data within the Federated Data Platform.
Only people with a need to see patient identifiable information will be able to, for example a clinician treating a patient or a theatre scheduler scheduling a procedure. Each user of the platform will only see the data required to carry out a specific task and must have the correct legal basis to do so. At a national level, no confidential patient information will be used, the data will be pseudonymised or deidentified.
Access to data in the Federated Data Platform will always be controlled by NHS organisations and will be compliant with General Data Protection Regulation and Information Governance rules. Use of data in the Federated Data Platform will be clearly auditable and assessed to ensure it meets data governance controls including compliance with legislation. Each use case will require a Data Protection Impact Assessment to articulate the data security and protection principals and lawful bases for deployment.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether private companies in the (a) health and (b) care sector will be able to access data that could identify patients via the Federated Data Platform.
Answered by Will Quince
The primary users of the Federated Data Platform will be National Health Service hospitals, integrated care systems (ICS) and NHS England. At ICS level, the benefits of the Federated Data Platform will also be realised by local authorities, local government, and the third sector providing health and care services, although they will not access the data within the Federated Data Platform. Only private companies contracted to NHS or social care to deliver services will have access to data within the Federated Data Platform.
Only people with a need to see patient identifiable information will be able to, for example a clinician treating a patient or a theatre scheduler scheduling a procedure. Each user of the platform will only see the data required to carry out a specific task and must have the correct legal basis to do so. At a national level, no confidential patient information will be used, the data will be pseudonymised or deidentified.
Access to data in the Federated Data Platform will always be controlled by NHS organisations and will be compliant with General Data Protection Regulation and Information Governance rules. Use of data in the Federated Data Platform will be clearly auditable and assessed to ensure it meets data governance controls including compliance with legislation. Each use case will require a Data Protection Impact Assessment to articulate the data security and protection principals and lawful bases for deployment.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether non-NHS providers will be given access to data that could identify patients via the Federated Data Platform.
Answered by Will Quince
The primary users of the Federated Data Platform will be National Health Service hospitals, integrated care systems (ICS) and NHS England. At ICS level, the benefits of the Federated Data Platform will also be realised by local authorities, local government, and the third sector providing health and care services, although they will not access the data within the Federated Data Platform. Only private companies contracted to NHS or social care to deliver services will have access to data within the Federated Data Platform.
Only people with a need to see patient identifiable information will be able to, for example a clinician treating a patient or a theatre scheduler scheduling a procedure. Each user of the platform will only see the data required to carry out a specific task and must have the correct legal basis to do so. At a national level, no confidential patient information will be used, the data will be pseudonymised or deidentified.
Access to data in the Federated Data Platform will always be controlled by NHS organisations and will be compliant with General Data Protection Regulation and Information Governance rules. Use of data in the Federated Data Platform will be clearly auditable and assessed to ensure it meets data governance controls including compliance with legislation. Each use case will require a Data Protection Impact Assessment to articulate the data security and protection principals and lawful bases for deployment.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with (a) patients and (b) groups that represent patients on the proposed NHS Federated Data Platform; and whether his Department has identified any concerns relating to the Platform.
Answered by Will Quince
Public facing information was published ahead of the procurement contract notice launch and will continue to be published throughout the lifecycle of the programme. This information was developed with public voice advocacy groups which included medConfidential, useMYdata and The Patients Association.
NHS England continue to engage members of the public directly on complex data topics, such as the public’s expectations of transparency and communications for future stages of the Federated Data Platform through various methods, including through focus groups and public dialogues. Engagement has identified concerns about who will be awarded the contract, who will have access to the data, and how it might be used.
NHS England are working to develop a public facing campaign to run in 2023 to support greater understanding of the power and impact of the use of health data to transform services, improve care and save lives, and to address these concerns.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what provision he will make for patients to be able to opt out of having their information stored on the Federated Data Platform.
Answered by Will Quince
Where applicable, National Data opt outs and Type 1 opt outs will apply to the Federated Data Platform. These opt outs apply where confidential patient information is being processed for secondary purposes and will not apply to an individual's direct care.