Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Markham on 25 January 2023 (HL Deb col 280) that the transfer of certain statutory functions would not weaken existing protections data and that data protection would remain a priority, what assessment they have made of the consistency with those remarks of the conclusion of the Data, Digital and Technology Committee of NHS England on 12 July 2023 that the Advisory Group for Data should be audited to ensure its decisions “are proportionate and are not unnecessarily disruptive to delivery and transformation”.

The advisory group for data (AGD) is central to ensuring that the transfer of NHS Digital's statutory functions to NHS England does not weaken existing protections of data.

The Secretary of State has issued statutory guidance about the exercise by NHS England of the transferred data functions. This statutory guidance requires NHS England to seek advice from a data advisory group, namely the AGD, on specific data access requests, and to support the development and maintenance of precedents, standards and guidance on data access. Terms of reference for the AGD are under consideration by NHS England following a consultation process. The terms of reference will be published once agreed by NHS England’s board or an appropriate sub-committee of the board. NHS England will also be transparent about the group’s operating processes. In line with this statutory guidance, NHS England will report annually on how it has discharged the transferred data functions.

We do not intend to set any criteria to be used by NHS England beyond what has already been set out in the statutory guidance, which will be kept under review.