Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 2 January 2015 to Question 219648, what criteria will be used by the National Data Guardian to evaluate whether it is right and safe to collect care.data information from GP practices.

In November 2014, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced the establishment of a new National Data Guardian to be the patient’s champion when it comes to the security of personal medical information. Dame Fiona Caldicott will be the first National Guardian and she has agreed that it will be her responsibility to raise concerns publicly about improper data use.

Dame Fiona Caldicott’s Independent Information Governance Oversight Panel’s report to the care.data Programme was published on 18 December 2014 and is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/iigop-report-on-caredata

The report outlined the evidence of readiness of the Pathfinder stage Dame Fiona would want to see before she would advise on the next stage of Pathfinder stage of the care.data programme.