Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to improve the sharing of medical records between medical institutions and trusts for mental health service users.

The Government recognises that appropriate and timely sharing of data is essential to improving care, treatment and support for service users. We are committed to ensuring the health and social care system in England realises the benefits of sharing data in a safe, secure and legal way.

Government policy has outlined the importance of sharing data between organisations at a local level. The Department has worked with the Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing to understand the factors which impact on information sharing in mental health crisis care.

Challenges around transferring patient notes and records between different organisations and care settings are recognised and will be addressed, in part, by the move from paper records to electronic systems for recording and sharing patient information.

‘Information: To Share or not to share? The Information Governance Review’ (2013) created a duty on National Health Service trusts to share information. NHS trusts have to demonstrate in their annual information governance return how they are fulfilling this duty.