Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to inform patients about the (a) Federated Data Platform and (b) use of their data.

We want to ensure public trust and confidence in how data is used within the Federated Data Platform (FDP) and that the views of the public inform future use.

NHS England has engaged in several activities, including: a series of public deliberation events and national research earlier in the year to understand the views of the public about how their data is used, and expectations about how they are informed about its use; public focus groups, and engagement with public voice groups, to coproduce web content for the launch of the procurement process; continued publication of clear and accessible information, including details about who will accessing data and for what purpose, with this information being co-created with public/patient groups and relevant stakeholders wherever possible; development of an engagement portal which will be published shortly to support the public to register to get involved in engagement activity, ask questions and provide feedback, which will be analysed and the emerging themes explored in future public engagement sessions; establishment of a patient and public panel to support the programme on an ongoing basis; ongoing engagement with a range of national stakeholders who represent public and patient voices and working to establish a stakeholder advisory group; development of a co-produced easy read FDP explainer which will be published shortly; and monitoring of views and sentiment regarding patient data which are tracked through a public survey.

NHS England will continue to engage with the public, in a range of ways, for the life of the programme, to understand their views and inform future use cases.