Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of General Practices are signed up to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD); and what steps his Department is taking to help address (a) technical and (b) contractual barriers preventing further practices from joining.

The Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) receives data from Optum, Vision, and TPP SystmOne practices, which represent the three largest clinical system providers to general practices (GPs). 32% of practices across all four nations currently participate in CPRD. As of 22 April, there are 7,660 practices in total, 2,428 of which currently have requested to contribute data to CPRD. The following table shows the number of practices in each nation:

CPRD is mandated to operate on a cost-recovery basis and holds contracts with all three of the main data providers. CPRD’s current data licence and service fees are only able to support a maximum of 35% population coverage across the United Kingdom. The focus is therefore on a representative practice and patient sample rather than 100% coverage.

For Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, previous IT system limitations restricting participation are currently being lifted which will allow for further participation across the three devolved nations.

CPRD currently has 402 TPP practices signed up in England. However, due to technical issues, CPRD is unable to use TPP patient data and continues to work with the supplier to find a solution.

If a patient registers for a type 1 opt-out with their GP, or registers for the National Data Opt-out, then CPRD will not receive any new data for that patient.

The number of type 1 opt-outs are not recorded centrally, as it is not possible to specify how many people who registered for a National Data Opt-out did so to opt-out of the sharing of their data via the CPRD, as the opt-out covers a range of research. Information on the numbers of National Data Opt-outs is published at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/dashboards/national-data-opt-out-open-data