NHS England’s protection of patient data
Statutory guidance on how NHS England should exercise the statutory functions that are intended to be transferred from NHS Digital.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
The Health and Social Care Information Centre (Transfer of Functions, Abolition and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2023 transferred the statutory duties of NHS Digital to NHS England on 1 February 2023.
This was in response to the recommendations in Putting data, digital and tech at the heart of transforming the NHS, and has established a single, central authority that is responsible for all elements of digital technology, data and transformation across the NHS.
The regulations add section 274A to the Health and Social Care Act 2012, which requires the Secretary of State to publish guidance for NHS England about its data functions.
In harnessing the full potential of data to digitally transform the NHS, this statutory guidance makes clear that NHS England should maintain high standards of data protection, information governance and transparency, as NHS Digital did, to demonstrate that it is a trustworthy custodian of health and care data. NHS England must have regard to this guidance and also undertake an annual review of how effectively it has discharged the data functions transferred over from NHS Digital.