Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that third parties will not be able to access patient data through the creation of the NHS Digital database.

Through the new General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection, applications must be made through NHS Digital’s Data Access Request Service. Access is strictly controlled and all applications are scrutinised and approved by the Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data before access is granted. Organisations using this data must have a clear legal basis to do so for health and care purposes and only the minimum amount of data needed to meet the specific purpose will be made available.