Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to inform the public on the General Practice Data for Planning and Research (GPDPR) service from NHS Digital that will share data from people's medical histories with third parties from 1 July 2021; and what steps people should take to opt out of that service.

NHS Digital is promoting this new data collection through their website, engagement with media, through stakeholder and patient groups and on social media channels. They have sought to raise awareness of the collection and its importance to the health and care system, but also to provide patients with a choice if they do not want their data to be used in this way.

Patients have a right to register a Type 1 Opt-Out directly with their general practitioner (GP) practice, and may also choose to register a National Data Opt-Out, which is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research