On 6th July, the UK Government published two independent reviews concerning data security and data sharing in the health and care system in England. At the same time the UK Government launched a public consultation on proposals resulting from these reviews. The public consultation will be of interest to organisations that regularly interact with the public health sector in the UK and in particular to those organisations that rely on access to health data from the NHS for research purposes.

The two independent reviews are the:

• Care Quality Commission review of data security in the NHS; and
• Dame Fiona Caldicott’s (who is the National Data Guardian for Health and Care) review of data security, consent and opt-outs (the ‘Caldicott Report’).

The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and social care in England and is responsible for ensuring health and social care services are safe and effective through its monitoring and inspection activities. In its report examining data handling within the health sector, the CQC’s findings indicated that the main areas of concern are leadership, behaviours and systems. Accordingly, the CQC recommendations focus on senior leadership, staff training and support, patient-designed IT systems, audits and external validations as well as ensuring that the proposed new data security standards come within the CQC’s monitoring remit.