Ambulance Services: Databases

(asked on 3rd May 2024) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2024 to Question 23378 on Ambulance Services: Databases, which directive issued under section 254 of the Health and Social Care 2012 Act NHS England is using to process de-identified data for use in the ambulance data services dashboard in the federated data platform product.


Answered by
Andrew Stephenson Portrait
Andrew Stephenson
This question was answered on 9th May 2024

The Federated Data Platform will bring together information on services, waiting times, equipment, and medicines, allowing the National Health Service to use data to improve outcomes for patients. The directions used to process de-identified data for use in the ambulance data services dashboard in the Federated Data Platform, is NHS England’s De-Identified Data Analytics and Publication Directions 2023, which is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital/corporate-information-and-documents/directions-and-data-provision-notices/secretary-of-state-directions/nhs-england-de-identified-data-analytics-and-publication-directions-2023

These are directions given by my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to establish arrangements for the governance of the ongoing processing of de-identified data, and to act as a framework for the future analysis, linkage, and de-identification of data for analysis by NHS England. The Ambulance Data Services Dashboard in the Federated Data Platform also aligns to the Ambulance Data Set Directions 2022, which is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital/corporate-information-and-documents/directions-and-data-provision-notices/nhs-england-directions/ambulance-data-set-directions-2022

These are directions originally given by NHS England to NHS Digital, to establish and operate a system for the collection and analysis of nationally consistent operational and clinical data from all ambulance services in England.

The legal bases for these specific directions are s261(5)(d) and s13Z3 (e) and (f), of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Further information on the legal grounds for data processing in relation to the Ambulance Data Services Dashboard can be found in the privacy notice. This is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/privacy-notice/how-we-use-your-information/nhs-federated-data-platform-privacy-notice/fdp-products-and-product-privacy-notices/ambulance-data-services-ads-dashboard-fdp-product-privacy-notice/

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