Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to NHS Digital’s General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection, what plans they have (1) to write individually to every affected patient fully explaining the proposed data acquisition and its benefits and risks, (2) to include an easily understandable summary of the Data Processing Impact Assessment in any such letter, and (3) to provide both paper and digital methods for patients to easily opt out if they so choose.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Privacy information can be communicated to patients through a range of different techniques. We have written a letter to all general practitioner (GP) practices in England who are best placed to inform patients about the data they routinely share. A copy of the letter is attached.
We are not ruling out writing to patients but there are concerns that this may not be the most effective way to communicate on this topic. Discussions are ongoing concerning writing to patients, but initially NHS Digital have been asked to work closely with the GP profession to ensure practices are supported in informing patients, whilst acknowledging the need to protect GP practices from additional burden
Patients can register a National Data Opt Out via post, phone or email, or register a Type 1 Opt Out by contacting their GP and we are looking at ways to make this process easier for patients and GPs.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the NHS Digital project to collect General Practice data for planning and research in England, whether they plan to place documents relating to the (1) transparency, (2) accountability, and (3) risks of the project in the Library of the House; and if so, when.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have no plans to do so. NHS Digital has published a transparency notice and privacy notice for the programme, which is available in an online only format.
The Data Provision Notice for the data collection outlines that NHS Digital have responsibility and accountability for the dissemination of data as the Data Controller under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulations. Following the deferral of the implementation of the programme for further engagement with stakeholders, the Data Provision Notice has been withdrawn to reflect these discussions.
The Data Protection Impact Assessment for the data collection which details the privacy related risks and mitigations will also be published online following its final assurance processes.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to NHS Digital’s General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection, who was consulted about the deferral of this project; and which civil liberties organisations have been consulted about the project as a whole.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS Digital has engaged with a range of organisations over recent years when devising the General Practice Data for Planning and Research programme and when taking the decision to pause its implementation. This has included the British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the National Data Guardian, Healthwatch England, Use My Data, the civil liberties organisation MedConfidential and research organisations.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer given by Lord Bethell on 1 December (HL10548), what “associated commercial implications” are engaged by disclosure of the requested non-commercial information; and which of the categories of non-commercial information that were requested give rise to those “associated commercial implications”.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department has considered the position of suppliers which were referred to the high priority channel. The disclosure of their names may damage the supplier’s reputation, affecting their competitive position and could have a potentially detrimental impact on their revenue and/or their ability to obtain future contracts.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their guidance Testing for coronavirus: privacy information - quick read, last updated on 11 November, which states that users’ data collected during testing for COVID-19 may be shared “for research purposes”, (1) what are the research purposes, (2) who will the data be shared with, (3) how long will the data be kept, and (4) what verification will be carried out to ensure that the shared data is only used for the stated purpose and is destroyed on time.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Ensuring the privacy of users and security of their personal data is a priority for the National Health Service and the Government. We follow cyber security best practice to help protect this data and comply with the law around the use of data, including the Data Protection Act 2018. All data is handled according to the highest ethical and security standards and is used only for NHS care, management, evaluation and research into COVID-19, to which individuals may be invited to take part in a research project.
Personal information can only be seen by Public Health England staff working on NHS Test and Trace, the contact tracers working for NHS Professionals and contact tracers, who can only see the information of the named contacts they have been instructed to call.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have a list of so-called ‘VIP’ companies, for whom the awarding of contracts to supply personal protective equipment may be accelerated; and if so, what plans they have to publish that list.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government issued a public call to action to support the increased requirements of personal protective equipment (PPE). This resulted in over 15,000 suppliers offering their help and support.
The cross-Government PPE team considered that leads referred by Government officials, ministers’ offices, Parliamentarians, senior NHS staff and other health professionals were likely to be the more credible and needed to be initially reviewed with more urgency. This was commonly referred to as a ‘priority’ or ‘VIP’ channel.
At the point of being prioritised these offers went into exactly the same due diligence, technical assurance, closing or contract negotiation and contract award process as all the other offers. About one in ten suppliers processed through this channel - 47 out of 493 - obtained contracts. We do not intend to publish the list of these suppliers as there may be associated commercial implications.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government who are the members of the clearance board put in place by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Cabinet Office to approve contracts for personal protective equipment worth more than £5 million; and how many contracts have they approved so far this year.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The clearance board was chaired by the Government’s Deputy Chief Commercial Officer or the Department’s Commercial Director. Standing members were the Commercial Officer, the Commercial Director and the Department’s Deputy Director of Procurement and the Deputy Director of Finance. It was also attended by a number of cross Government and cross functional teams including Government Legal Department, the Department’s anti-fraud unit, and Department for Health and Social Care and Cabinet Office’s commercial colleagues. All these personnel were Government officials.
The role of the board was to decide whether any deal of £5 million or more should be passed to the Department’s procurement and finance teams for accounting officer consideration and final formal approval.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 1 December (HL10548), what representations they have received about the inexperience of personal protective equipment suppliers awarded a Government contract this year; and what assessment they have made of the impact on public confidence in the probity of their procurement process of their refusal to disclose non-commercial information about the companies whose offers were reviewed in a timely manner.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government issued a public call to action to support the increased requirements of personal protective equipment (PPE) in March and has always been clear that the purpose of this was to reach suppliers who not only had experience of supplying PPE but also those who had no prior experience but who had access to sources of PPE through their business contacts or could re-purpose to supply PPE. This resulted in over 15,000 suppliers offering their help and support.
All offers went through the same eight stage assurance process which selected suppliers based on the product type, clinical acceptability, price, forecasted delivery dates, volume and financial standing.
All the Contract Award Notices for these PPE contacts have now been published online as well as the majority of the contracts themselves and the balance will be published shortly. These contain the details of all suppliers awarded a PPE contract, the value of the contract and the items ordered under the contract.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 24 November (HL10126), whether the use of the “extreme urgency” provision in Regulation 32(2)(c) instead of competitive tendering has become the default method for the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies; whether the demand for PPE has returned to more predictable levels such that contracts for PPE supplies can return to being competitively tendered; and what assessment they have made of the continued use of the “extreme urgency” provision in the current circumstances.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have made use of existing procurement rules which allow the Government to procure at speed in times of emergency, as confirmed in Cabinet Office Guidance circulated to procuring authorities in March. Regulation 32(2)(c) for the direct award of a contract is not a new procedure but its use was necessary due to a highly volatile global market and the extreme urgency at which we had to proceed.
The guidance issued by the Cabinet Office set out a range of options under the Procurement Regulations which can be used depending on urgency and other factors. In addition to direct awards, authorities can reduce the minimum timescales for the open procedure, the restricted procedure and the competitive procedure with negotiation if a state of urgency renders the standard timescales impracticable. All future procurement routes will be considered against the specific requirement and the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 to determine how best to proceed.
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what contracts they have placed in 2020, and with whom, for the purchase of facemasks for use by health workers; and what was the cost per unit for each type of facemask under each such contract.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Three hundred and seventy contracts have been awarded by the Department for the supply of all types of personal protective equipment (PPE). The published Contract Award Notices contain details on the different types of PPE ordered against each contract, information which is not collated centrally prior to publication, as well as the name of the supplier. Purchase orders have been raised against these contracts for over six billion facemasks which are in the process of being delivered to the United Kingdom or have already arrived and are then quality checked at our UK warehouses before being distributed to the frontline.
Information on the unit price of PPE ordered under each contract is considered commercially confidential.