Health Bill

Kim Johnson Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 1st June 2026 Commons Chamber

[James Murray]

The hon. Gentleman raises questions relating to Healthwatch and to HSSIB being integrated into the Care Quality Commission. I will set out more detail in a few moments about those decisions, but fundamentally they derive from conclusions arrived at by Dr Penny Dash, whose review of the patient safety landscape found that it was too full of different organisations, and that their impact on the services provided to patients was unclear. We are seeking through this Bill to simplify that landscape, make sure that patients’ voices are heard closer to decision makers and improve the NHS for everyone across the country.

For me, the way to build on the progress of the past two years is not just to maintain the improvement in performance that we have seen, but to accelerate our fundamental transformation and modernisation of the NHS. As Health Secretary, I am absolutely focused on delivery and putting the values that we in the Labour party all share into action. Crucially, I am determined to make sure that we benefit from the fullest possible use of technology, digitisation and artificial intelligence to renew the NHS for the future.

The changes in technology, digitisation and AI are not an add-on to the NHS’s core business. With a determined focus on driving innovation at every level and the confidence to reimagine our approach to the nation’s health for the modern world, they offer us the chance to transform the way the entire NHS works. They will improve the speed of diagnosis, helping people to get the right treatment much more quickly than they do today.

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside) (Lab)]

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

[James Murray]

I am going to make some progress, if I may.

These changes will streamline tasks for NHS staff, freeing them from admin and bureaucracy to focus their energy on caring for patients. They will transform the experience we all have as patients, giving us control and reducing our anxiety over the care we receive. They will reduce the costs of delivering healthcare, so that more of the money we spend goes to the frontline, where it belongs. That is the future we must build, and the road to that future runs through this Bill.

For many years, patient groups have warned about the pitfalls and shortcomings of fragmented information systems in the NHS, and they are absolutely right. Right now, information in the NHS tends to follow the institution, not the individual. That is why we all know the familiar frustration of having to repeat the same story over and over, every time we see a new nurse, doctor or consultant. The reason for this is that too often no one, including the patient themselves, can see a full summary of a patient’s medical record in one place. Those patchy care records are not just an inconvenience or a source of anxiety and distress; they can also be a risk to patient safety.

--- Later in debate ---

[James Murray]

I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. She is absolutely right to underscore the importance of data security and data privacy. That is essential in building trust in what we are seeking to do.

To be clear, the single patient record, as I was just saying a moment ago in response to the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty), does not move data from one system to another; it preserves the data where it is, and builds links between systems so that one person, whether a clinician or a patient, can see all the data at once. The data will still be governed by the same privacy policies on a GP system, in a hospital trust system and so on. When linked together through the single patient record, it will be governed by the highest levels of security: only authorised individuals will be able to access the data, there will be an audit trail of anyone who has accessed it, and the cyber-security protection will be the strongest available.

[Kim Johnson]

I really appreciate the Secretary of State giving way on that point. This morning on Radio 4, he failed to rule out Palantir being awarded the single patient record. We know that the £330 million offered to it for the current federated data has been highly criticised by unions and the British Medical Association. What assurances can he give us that patient safety will be free from abuse and misuse?

[James Murray]

As my hon. Friend will have heard, as she listened to the rest of my interview on Radio 4 this morning, the situation with the single patient record is very different from that of the federated data platform, because it is likely that we will let a series of contracts to de-risk the delivery of the single patient record. The situation with Palantir is that the contract for the federated data platform is, as I am sure she knows, being reviewed ahead of a potential break clause in 2027, but the situation with the single patient record is a very different set-up. As I have said a couple of times now, information is stored on individual systems—in GPs, hospitals and so on. The single patient record links them up and will be delivered through a range of different contracts to make sure that the system works in the interests of clinicians and patients.