Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prevention, Public Health and Primary Care of 8 June 2021, Official Report, column 808, that the planned sharing of patient data by NHS Digital is to be delayed until 1 September, when he plans to publish the Data Protection Impact Assessment of those proposals.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS Digital intends to publish the Data Protection Impact Assessment for the programme following its final assurance processes including legal and stakeholder reviews.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the data protection impact assessment for NHS Digital General Practice Data for planning and research data collection will be published.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The data protection impact assessment is currently being reviewed and updated ahead of the delivery of this service. NHS Digital plans to publish the impact assessment for the programme following its final assurance processes, legal and stakeholder reviews.
Asked by: Baroness Cumberlege (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have registered an opt-out with their GP practice to prevent the sharing of personal data outside of their GP practice except for their own care as at 5 July; and how many people have registered an opt-out covering the broader health and care system, that is the National Data opt-out, as at 5 July.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Data on how many people have registered such an opt-out is not held centrally. NHS Digital reports that the current number of registered national data opt-outs is 3,066,543.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the announcement on General Practice Data for Planning and Research service from NHS Digital on sharing data on medical histories with third parties, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure people are informed about how their medical information will be used.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS Digital is promoting this new data collection through their website, engagement with the media, 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.
The data collection has now been paused until 1 September 2021 and in the next two months we will communicate the significant benefits this system will have for the health and care system.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS Digital’s plans for personal medical histories to be shared with academic and commercial third parties, what steps his Department is taking to ensure there is greater transparency on (a) which aspects of patient data will be made available, (b) which third-party organisations will have access to patient data, (c) how the use of patient data is limited, (d) what patients’ rights and the mechanisms to opt-out are and (e) the safeguards in place to protect confidential patient data.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS Digital has set out which structured and coded data will be collected on its website. Data shared by NHS Digital is subject to robust rules on privacy, security and confidentiality. Access will only be granted to the minimum amount of data necessary to achieve the relevant health and social care purpose. All requests to access patient data from this collection will be assessed by NHS Digital’s Data Access Request Service, to ensure organisations have a legal basis to use the data and that it will be used safely, securely and appropriately. These requests for access will also be subject to scrutiny and oversight by the Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data.
NHS Digital publishes the details of the data they allow access to on their data release register, with audits of those organisations who have been granted access. NHS Digital also provides information to patients about their ability to opt-out of their data being used for purposes beyond their own care, such as through the National Data Opt-Out.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
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 help ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place for the data collected as part of the General Practice Data for Planning and Research service for NHS Digital.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Data collected for General Practice Data for Planning and Research will be de-identified before it leaves practices and through a Trusted Research Environment.
Applications must be made through NHS Digital’s Data Access Request Service, with access strictly controlled. All applications are scrutinised and requests approved by the Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data. Organisations using this data must have a clear legal basis to do so for health and care purposes and only the minimum amount of data needed to meet the specific purpose will be made available.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
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 general public about the option to opt out of the General Practice Data for Planning and Research service for NHS Digital.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS Digital is promoting this new data collection through their website, engagement with media, 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 how to opt out.
The data collection has now been paused until 1 September 2021 and we will undertake further engagement with the public.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to make the process of opting out of NHS Digital preference data sharing more accessible for the digitally excluded.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The national data opt-out provides digital, phone assisted and paper methods for patients to opt out.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that third parties will not be able to access patient data through the creation of the NHS Digital database.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Through the new General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection, applications must be made through NHS Digital’s Data Access Request Service. Access is strictly controlled and all applications are scrutinised and approved by the Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data before access is granted. Organisations using this data must have a clear legal basis to do so for health and care purposes and only the minimum amount of data needed to meet the specific purpose will be made available.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that patients have more access to their healthcare data.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
On 22 June, the Department published a draft strategy for health and social care which puts forward our vision to bring people closer to their data and understand how that data is used. This includes making sure that the technology is in place to enable everyone across England to have easy access to their own health and care data and to view which research their data has informed.