Health Bill

Sarah Champion Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 1st June 2026 Commons Chamber

[James Murray]

I will give way one more time.

[Sarah Champion (Rotherham) (Lab)]

Specifically on the single patient record, the explanatory notes say that it will

“allow patient information to be shared with patients and their relevant health and social care providers (such as GPs, hospital doctors, social care workers and others involved in their direct care)”.

By my maths, that is probably a couple of million people, so could the Secretary of State please talk about how safeguards will be implemented, particularly for children’s care data?

[James Murray]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising the very important question of data privacy and security. I will address that in a moment, because I am going to set out some of the protections in our approach to the single patient record, and I think that will exactly answer the questions she raises.

I will make progress, because I am conscious of time. As I have said, the patchy records are not just an annoyance or a source of anxiety or distress; they can also be a risk to patient safety. In other areas of our lives, getting information wrong or not having it immediately available may be an inconvenience; in a health service, the consequences can be profound. What happens to the patient who is rushed to accident and emergency and has complex conditions that require multiple medications, if the emergency team have no way of knowing that? What happens to the dementia patient who cannot keep track of all the different documents from all the different specialists in all the different providers? In today’s NHS, the GP or practice nurse at the clinic, the paramedics stepping through the front door and the consultant at the bedside are doing everything they can to try to solve a puzzle, but without all the pieces. This Bill will change that. It will do so by introducing a new approach—the single patient record—and that is nothing short of a game changer.