Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to make it easier for people with (a) diabetes and (b) other chronic conditions to access their patient records.

General practitioner (GP) practices offer access to detailed coded records to their patients upon request and steps have been taken to improve this process. NHS England is encouraging practices to actively offer access to records to patients with long term conditions such as diabetes; the Royal College of General Practitioners has been commissioned to develop guidance for GPs on how to offer access to records to their patients most effectively; and the Empower the Patient portfolio, part of the Personalised Health and Care 2020 portfolio, aims to improve access to patient records for patients or their representatives.