Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to prevent patient data from being accessed by website trackers on (a) the NHS North Bristol Trust and (b) other NHS England websites.

Each NHS organisation is responsible for its website and for ensuring that any tracking technology used on its site meets strict legal requirements. As soon as NHS Bristol Trust became aware of this issue they engaged with the Information Commissioner’s Office and took immediate steps to protect the privacy of their website users, removing Meta Pixel from their website and strengthening the cookies consent process.

In June 2023, NHS England published guidance for all NHS organisations on website activity trackers and how to ensure they are used appropriately, including how to audit the tracking and profiling which takes place on their website. The guidance also includes links to more detailed guidance provided by the Information Commissioner’s Office. Whilst NHS England does use cookies and similar technologies on its website, those technologies are not used to share patient data held by NHS England.