Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the British Medical Association report Building the Future: Getting IT Right, published on 5 December 2022; in particular, the finding that "nearly 76 per cent of doctors ranked 'interoperability of systems' as a 'significant barrier' to digital transformation"; and what assessment they have made of whether the absence of a consistent child identifier prevents the interoperability of IT systems for protecting children's health and care.

An assessment on interoperability has been made across several areas through the Digital Maturity Assessment, providing greater understanding of individual organisational-level capability and enabling focus on national efforts to support levelling up those organisations at a lower level of maturity.

Every child born in England is issued a National Health Service number at birth which stays with them throughout their life. The NHS number acts as a unique patient identifier and is used to share information within electronic healthcare records. This contributes to improved health outcomes for children by ensuring that health professionals identify patients correctly and have access to information to inform the delivery of appropriate care.