Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential long-term effects of vaping on the health of people (a) under and (b) over the age of 18 in (i) Wirral and (ii) England.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department has not made a specific assessment of this in the Wirral and England. However, in general the Department’s assessment of the safety of vaping is based upon a series of independent evidence reviews commissioned over the past several years. The most recent and final in the series, the 2022 Nicotine Vaping in England report, was published in September 2022.
The latest report focuses predominantly on the potential health risks of vaping, and concludes that in the short and medium term, vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking, but that vaping is not risk-free, particularly for people who have never smoked.
The Government only recommends regulated vaping products to help adult smokers to quit smoking and vapes should not be used by people under 18 or people who have never smoked.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to estimate the long-term cost to the NHS of vaping.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We have no current plans to make a long-term estimate. Evidence shows that whilst not risk-free, vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking. It is estimated that smoking costs the National Health Service £2.4 billion a year. Helping smokers quit smoking including using tools such as vaping is likely to save the NHS financial costs from the smoking burden.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Federated Data Platform will ensure that all patient data is (a) held within the UK and (b) is subject to UK data protection law including the General Data Protection Regulation.
Answered by Will Quince
The Federated Data Platform and Associated Services contract will stipulate that all data must be held within the United Kingdom and is subject to UK Data Protection Law including the General Data Protection Regulation.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Federated Data Platform, what safeguards are in place to ensure that it will not be used to market health or care services and products to patients.
Answered by Will Quince
There will not be marketing activity within the Federated Data Platform (FDP). It will comply with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Information Commissioner’s Office guidance and associated regulations, standards and guidance. Access to data in the FDP will always be controlled by National Health Service organisations. Use of data in the FDP will be clearly auditable and will be assessed to ensure compliance with GDPR and Information Governance rules.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the federated data platform will (a) process and (b) be a repository of (i) anonymised patient data and (b) pseudonymised patient data.
Answered by Will Quince
The Federated Data Platform will be a data processor on behalf of National Health Service organisations. Each integrated care system and trust will need to determine how they will use their platform and each use case will require a Data Protection Impact Assessment to articulate the data security and protection principals and lawful bases for deployment.
The type of data will depend on the uses of the data as defined by the individual NHS organisations. It is anticipated that there will be various types of data used including anonymised, pseudonymised and in some cases identifiable data, but subject to stringent controls on access and use.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether only NHS staff will be permitted to access data via the Federated Data Platform.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department’s Joint Investment Committee approved the Federated Data Platform Outline Business Case, which provided details of the scope of the platform and the likely estimated benefits. The Federated Data Platform will be initially built on five use cases, selected based on the National Health Service strategic priorities, the immediate benefit that they will realise and the wider insights that they will be able to provide. These are: population health management; care coordination; elective recovery; vaccines; and immunisation and supply chain.
Access to data in the Federated Data Platform will always be controlled by NHS organisations and only those working in health and social care will be able to access the data.
It is envisaged that the primary users of the Federated Data Platform will be NHS hospitals, integrated care systems (ICSs) and NHS England. At ICS level, the benefits of the Federated Data Platform will also be realised by local authorities, local government and the third sector, who all contribute to providing health and care services.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the scope of activities for which the Federated Data Platform is to be used; and who his Department plans to have access to that Platform.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department’s Joint Investment Committee approved the Federated Data Platform Outline Business Case, which provided details of the scope of the platform and the likely estimated benefits. The Federated Data Platform will be initially built on five use cases, selected based on the National Health Service strategic priorities, the immediate benefit that they will realise and the wider insights that they will be able to provide. These are: population health management; care coordination; elective recovery; vaccines; and immunisation and supply chain.
Access to data in the Federated Data Platform will always be controlled by NHS organisations and only those working in health and social care will be able to access the data.
It is envisaged that the primary users of the Federated Data Platform will be NHS hospitals, integrated care systems (ICSs) and NHS England. At ICS level, the benefits of the Federated Data Platform will also be realised by local authorities, local government and the third sector, who all contribute to providing health and care services.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what representations he has received from local NHS leaders on the proposed federated data platform.
Answered by Will Quince
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, regularly meets with a range of officials to advance transformational improvements across National Health Service data systems. These meetings include discussions on the proposed procurement of the Federated Data Platform.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost of training NHS staff to use the federated data platform; and whether those costs are included in the specified value of the contract.
Answered by Will Quince
The Federated Data Platform Programme in NHS England is working through the requirements for training, deployment support, and implementation to ensure that trusts, integrated care boards and NHS England are in a position to make full use of the Federated Data Platform capabilities.
Requirements for the ease of use and training solutions has been included within the platform procurement. A budget has been allocated to the Federated Data Platform programme to support the training and adoption support to trusts.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on how many patients in England have written to NHS trusts to ask that their NHS data is not uploaded to the federated data platform.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department and NHS England do not hold information relating to correspondence between patients and trusts in relation to the Federated Data Platform. Where applicable, National Data Opt Outs and Type 1 opt outs will apply to the Federated Data Platform. These opt-outs apply where confidential patient information is being processed for secondary purposes and will not apply to an individual's direct care.