Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what protections are in place to ensure that individuals who raise concerns about NHS services are not subject to inappropriate access to their personal medical records.

The Department takes the issue of inappropriate access to anyone’s medical records seriously. There are various safeguards used in the National Health Service to prevent unauthorised access to patient records.

NHS England is developing guidance which is focused on inappropriate access to patient records. The guidance will be aimed at NHS organisations and highlights the importance of ensuring that patient records are only ever accessed for legitimate purposes and any inappropriate access is likely to be considered a significant data breach. The guidance will be published in the coming months.