NHS Digital also has a number of legal powers under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to share data with organisations where it is necessary for particular purposes.
We may, therefore, share your personal data using these powers, or under the legal notice mentioned above, with other health and care organisations for the purposes of your individual care and treatment or for planning, commissioning and research purposes.
We may also share your personal data with approved researchers, including for the purposes of carrying out clinical trials. We will only share your data with other organisations where this is lawful and and in line with data protection law.
Types of organisations we may share your data with
The types of organisations we may share your data with include:
- the Department of Health and Social Care and other government departments, as part of the government response to coronavirus
- NHS England
- Public Health England
- GPs
- Clinical Commissioning Groups
- Local Authorities
- other NHS, health, or social care organisations
- NHS bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
- research bodies, such as universities and hospitals
We may also share your information with organisations who process personal data for us on our behalf. They are called Processors. Where we use Processors we have contracts in place with them which means that they can only process your personal data on our instructions. Our Processors are also required to comply with stringent security requirements when processing your personal data on our behalf.
We will also publish data we have obtained for COVID-19 purposes which is anonymous, so that no individuals can be identified from that data. This will enable NHS and other organisations to use this anonymous data for statistical analysis and for planning, commissioning and research purposes as part of the response to coronavirus.