Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2020 to Question 48415 on NHS: Computer Software, what the criteria are under which the NHS will decide to delete that data.

Any data shared with the National Health Service as part of the public health emergency and stored centrally, may be retained during the emergency and used for research in the public interest, for providing care, and for public health management while complying with all the necessary legislation.

In accordance with the law, personal data will not be kept for longer than is necessary. The data will be retained for the duration of the public health emergency. If any of the data is required for public health reasons after the pandemic has ended, a revised Data Protection Impact Assessment will be undertaken. We will ensure that the necessity to retain the data will be routinely reviewed (at least every six months).