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Written question asked by Iqbal Mohamed (Independent (affiliation)) on Thursday, 11 June 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 15 June 2026. It was answered by Preet Kaur Gill (Labour) on Thursday, 25 June 2026 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

NHS: Databases

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England received legal advice in 2024 that aspects of the Federated Data Platform lacked a legal basis.

Answer

The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) safely connects information from different systems across the National Health Service into a single, secure environment. This allows staff to co-ordinate care better to improve outcomes for patients.

The NHS FDP is delivering for the NHS, helping people get the care they need quicker and more efficiently. Since March 2024, more than 100,000 additional patients have been supported to undergo procedures in theatres partly by increasing theatre utilisation. Nearly 94,000 people have been supported on their cancer journey, with 7% seeing a reduction in the time it took to diagnose their cancer. There has been a 14% decrease in delays discharging patients staying in hospital for more than seven days, freeing up beds for those who need them most. NHS England publishes quarterly information on benefits realised from the FDP, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/digitaltechnology/nhs-federated-data-platform/impact/fdp-uptake-and-benefits/

As of the end of May 2026, 170 trusts have signed up for the NHS FDP, including the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust.

NHS England routinely seeks and receives legal advice in relation to the NHS FDP as part of its governance and assurance processes.

At no point has NHS England’s legal advice been that the NHS FDP lacks a legal basis. The programme is underpinned by NHS England’s statutory functions and operates within the framework of United Kingdom data protection law and the common law duty of confidentiality.

As with any complex national data programme, legal advice has informed the development and refinement of specific aspects of the NHS FDP to ensure that appropriate legal bases and safeguards are in place for different data processing activities. These are reflected in the programme’s Data Protection Impact Assessments and information governance framework.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
9253
Session
2026-27
Subjects
Databases Legal opinion NHS
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk