Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the accessibility of the digital DS1500 service by GPs in the Welsh NHS who do not (a) have NHS smartcards and (b) use NHS.net email addresses.
User research with clinicians to develop the Report that a patient may live less than 6 months (Digital DS1500) found that using the NHS smartcard authentication into the service was the preferred approach to ensure sensitive patient data was protected. Extending smartcard identity management into Wales would be a decision for NHS Wales and at present there are no active plans to pursue this.