Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of using Blockchain technology to store, update and access patient records in the NHS.

The Department is currently assessing the potential benefits of Blockchain along with a number of other innovative, emerging technologies. Blockchain has the potential to enable patients to have greater control over who can access their records through the use of encrypted data and a permanent ledger in which all transactions are recorded.