Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the final report of the Cass Review, published in April 2024, what steps he is taking to help ensure the data linkage study is completed.

A children and young people’s gender research programme, jointly led by NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Research, is in place to underpin the design and delivery of the new model of National Health Service specialist gender care in England.

NHS England is responsible for delivery of the Data Linkage Study. It is a retrospective study based on an analysis of data collected historically for a cohort of adults who, as children, were cared for under a former model of NHS gender care, the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS). This study requires no active patient participation and instead relies on an analysis of the available digital information held within health records and other nationally held databases. The analysis will look for potential linkages or associations that do not prove ‘cause and effect’ but nonetheless may provide useful insights on the experience and outcomes of former GIDS patients.

NHS England has taken time to undertake due diligence work on the data sources critical to the study, and to work with organisations to refine the planned approach to data sharing. Study approvals are currently in progress. As with usual research practice, the data linkage study protocol will be made available in the public domain once independent research and ethical approvals have been appropriately secured, at which point the analytical work can begin.