Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will publish the legal direction under Section 254 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 that disapplies patient opt-outs for the NHS Federated Data Platform.

All directions made by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, under section 254 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 are published at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital/corporate-information-and-documents/directions-and-data-provision-notices/secretary-of-state-directions/secretary-of-state-directions-a-z

The National Data Opt-Out does not currently apply to the NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP). This is not because of a direction but because there are currently no products within the NHS FDP which are required to apply the National Data Opt-Out. If the purpose of processing means that the National Data Opt-Out should apply, then the data controller must apply the opt-out. This is covered in the NHS FDP Information Governance Framework, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/federated-data-platform-information-governance-framework/

Further information on where the National Data Opt-Out does not apply is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/where-your-choice-does-not-apply/