Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that patients do not allow the extraction of their data under care.data in order to avoid exclusions from bowel screening, e-referrals and similar services.

In February 2014 NHS England announced an extension to the care.data programme to listen to the views and concerns of patients and health professionals about the programme. During the listening exercise neither type of objection was implemented as no data was extracted. This means that information for services such as cancer screening, electronic prescriptions and e-referrals is currently flowing and will continue to do so.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre is committed to ensuring no patient suffers any adverse impact on their direct care through an inappropriate implementation of an objection.