Legal advice given to NHS England indicates that a vital aspect of its controversial Federated Data Platform (FDP) lacks a legal basis. The development arose after preparations for a legal challenge questioned the legality of creating the FDP within the existing legal framework for data acquisition and sharing in the NHS.
Despite an NHS spokesperson's dismissal of the concerns, documents reveal that NHS England had received legal advice casting doubt about a privacy enhancing technology (PET) provided by IQVIA. According to documents, the PET would require a separate lawful basis to process personal confidential data (PCD).
As a result, NHS England may be required to offer all patients the opportunity to opt out of sharing their data with the FDP in accordance with the current legislation for patient information control (Section 251 of the National Health Service Act 2006).
What is this page?
You are reading a summary article on the Privacy Newsfeed, a free resource for DPOs and other professionals with privacy or data protection responsibilities helping them stay informed of industry news all in one place. The information here is a brief snippet relating to a single piece of original content or several articles about a common topic or thread. The main contributor is listed in the top left-hand corner, just beneath the article title.
The Privacy Newsfeed monitors over 300 global publications, of which more than 5,750 summary articles have been posted to the online archive dating back to the beginning of 2020. A weekly roundup is available by email every Friday.
