In this section

National data opt-out programme

For the purposes of commissioning and managing healthcare, patient information may also be shared with other types of NHS organisations.

Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident & Emergency or using Community Care services, important information about you is collected to help ensure you get the best possible care and treatment.

The information collected about you when you use these services can also be provided to other approved organisations, where there is a legal basis, to help with planning services, improving care provided, research into developing new treatments and preventing illness. All of these help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential personal information about your health and care is only used in this way where allowed by law and would never be used for insurance or marketing purposes without your explicit consent.

You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way.

To find out more about the wider use of confidential personal information and to register your choice to opt out if you do not want your data to be used in this way, visit https://digital.nhs.uk/services/national-data-opt-out-programme. If you do choose to opt out you can still consent to your data being used for specific purposes.

If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. You can change your choice at any time.

Confidential patient-identifiable information is only shared with other organisations where there is a legal basis for it as follows:

  • When there is a Court Order or a statutory duty to share patient data;
  • When there is a statutory power to share patient data;
  • When the patient has given his/her explicit consent to the sharing;
  • When the patient has implicitly consented to the sharing for direct care purposes;
  • When the sharing of patient data without consent has been authorised by the Confidentiality Advisory Group of the Health Research Authority (HRA CAG) under Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 

This list is not exhaustive but indicative of the information recorded.