Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill on (a) the transparent use of NHS data and (b) ensuring that NHS data is not used to generate profit.

‘A plan for digital health and social care’ sets out standards on interoperability and architecture to enable all relevant health and care data to be accessible to those with a legitimate right to do so. In addition, ‘Data saves lives: reshaping health and social care with data’ states the importance of transparency in building trust and retaining public confidence. These principles are protected within the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill.

The United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulations and the Data Protection Act 2018 set out the conditions which apply to the processing of personal data. The National Health Service does not sell data and does not allow data to be used solely for commercial purposes. All applications for access to data must have a health or care benefit. The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill will not amend how this data is treated.