Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department made an assessment of the potential effect on public trust in medical confidentiality of the continued dissemination of the hospital data of those patients who had opted out of such dissemination.

Building public trust in how the health and care system uses personal confidential information is key to unlocking the potential benefits that this information can bring, and this trust is dependent on the public knowing how and why their information is used and what choices they have.

That is why my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State commissioned the National Data Guardian for Health and Care, Dame Fiona Caldicott, to undertake an independent review of data security, consent and opt-outs, which was published on 6 July 2016. A public consultation closed on 7 September 2016 and the Government response to the consultation will be published shortly.