MPs question Minister on delayed NHS patient data-sharing scheme

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• Health and Social Care Committee

Purpose of the session

The implementation of the scheme which enables NHS Digital to share data from GP medical records, officially known as General Practice Data for Planning and Research, has been delayed until September 2021. MPs will consider the benefits to medical research and improvements to NHS planning that could be achieved by the plans for ongoing extraction of GP patient data.

The Committee will also consider the risks associated with extracting data on this scale, including concerns that confidential health data could be used by marketing or insurance companies and that individual patients may be identifiable, despite processes which are intended to prevent this from happening.

The hearing will also examine the extent to which patients understand how their data is used by the NHS, the strength of the opt-out options available to patients, and parallels with the care data scheme which was closed in 2016.

Witnesses

Tuesday 20 July 2021

From 9.30am:

• Professor Sir Martin Landray, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford, Deputy Director of Oxford University’s Big Data Institute, Joint lead RECOVERY clinical trial
• Nicola Perrin, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Association of Medical Research Charities
• Phil Booth, Coordinator, MedConfidential

At approx. 10.30am:

• Lord Bethell, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Innovation), Department for Health
• Simon Madden, Director of Policy & Strategy at NHSX and Chair of the Health and Care Information Governance Panel, NHS
• Simon Bolton, Interim CEO, NHS Digital
• Dr Nicola Byrne, National Data Guardian

Further information 

• About Parliament: Select committees
• Visiting Parliament: Watch committees

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