Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will raise with NHS England the concerns of the Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data regarding the amount of time they had to comment on the draft guidance on NHS England’s protection of patient data.

The Independent Advisory Group on the Release of Data (IGARD) was asked to provide feedback on Draft guidance on NHS England’s protection of patient data, which was published on 23 January 2023 in an online-only format. We expect to continue receiving feedback from members of IGARD and other stakeholders on this draft and identify issues to address before the guidance is finalised, which we intend to do by the end of February 2023.

IGARD has also been actively involved in developing draft Terms of Reference (ToR) for the new data advisory group to be established in line with the draft statutory guidance. The ToR will continue to be developed and will be finalised to reflect the statutory guidance once finalised.