Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the devolved administrations in (a) Wales, (b) Scotland and (c) Northern Ireland on the speed and efficiency of transfer of patient records between administrations.

We do not have any record of discussions that have taken place between the Secretary of State for Health and the devolved administrations on the speed and efficiency of transfer of patient records between administrations. However, we are aware that Wales has been conducting a pilot of the GP2GP system, which enables patient records to be electronically transferred between one practice and another, and Scotland has also been rolling out the system. In the future this should enable faster, more effective transfer of patient records between administrations.

Additionally, the Summary Care Record Programme in England has a four nations forum with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland that focuses on best practice and lessons learned from the respective national record sharing solutions.