NHS: Databases
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) contractual and (b) regulatory safeguards apply to IQVIA’s role in providing de-identification services for NHS patient data within the Federated Data Platform.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) safely connects information from different systems across the National Health Service into a single, secure environment. This allows staff to co-ordinate care to improve outcomes for patients.
The NHS FDP is delivering for the NHS, helping people get the care they need quicker and more efficiently. Since March 2024, more than 100,000 additional patients have been supported to undergo procedures in theatres partly by increasing theatre utilisation, nearly 94,000 people have been supported on their cancer journey, with 7% seeing a reduction in the time it took to diagnose their cancer, and there has been a 14% decrease in delays discharging patients staying in hospital for more than seven days, freeing up beds for those who need.
NHS England publishes quarterly information on the benefits realised from the NHS FDP at the following link:
To date, 24 integrated care board clusters and 168 NHS trusts have signed up to the NHS FDP, including the Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, the Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, and the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
The NHS Privacy Enhancing Technology (PET) contract includes robust provisions that enable NHS England to manage supplier performance and protect the interests of patients and the NHS.
The NHS PET contract is based on the Government Legal Department’s Model Services Contract. The contract operates within a robust legal and governance framework, including strict requirements relating to data protection, confidentiality, and the lawful basis of data processing.
The NHS PET contractor is mandated to adhere to the published NHS FDP Information Governance Framework, operating as a processor under explicit instruction of the controller at all times.
These combined contractual and governance controls ensure that NHS England can take appropriate action, including suspension or termination, where necessary to address issues relating to compliance with legal, data governance, or other operational requirements.
The contract with IQVIA for PET is published at the following link:
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