Written question asked by Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 13 July 2020, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 July 2020. It was answered by Lord Bethell (Conservative) on Wednesday, 22 July 2020 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Coronavirus: X-rays

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether patients’ consent will be required before their data can be collected for the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database.

Answer: The data collected for the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database is done so under the Control of Patient Information notices issued by the Secretary of State for Health. Consequently, no patient consent is required to collect the data from National Health Service trusts. No patient identifiable data is shared with developers. Images and clinical data points are anonymised before they are sent from each NHS trust to the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust for collation. The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust further verifies that any identifiable data burnt onto the images is removed. Once this step is completed, the anonymised data is uploaded on a cloud-based repository owned by NHSX, and having NHS England as the data controller.

Secondary information