Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, by what mechanisms the care.data programme board will be accountable to (a) Parliament and (b) patients.

The care.data Programme Board represents a range of organisations and areas, including patients and the public. For further information on the care.data Programme Board, the full Terms of Reference are available online at:

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/tsd/care-data/prog-board/

Tim Kelsey chairs the care.data Programme Board in his role as Senior Responsible Owner. Tim Kelsey is accountable to Simon Stevens and the NHS England Board, as care.data is a programme funded by NHS England, and to Will Cavendish, as Informatics Accountable Officer (IAO) at the Department of Health, who has accountability for ensuring all national health and care informatics programmes deliver successfully.

The Accounting Officer (AO) for the Department has overall responsibility for the design, funding and regulation of the health and care system. The IAO carries out a similar function for those aspects of the health and care system which relate to the provision of information technology and the use of data, acting on behalf of the AO and, as appropriate, the Secretary of State to put in place sponsorship processes for each of the Department’s arm’s length bodies (ALBs) for delivery of relevant commitments in each ALB’s policy and legislative framework.