Information about you and the care you receive is shared, in a secure system, by healthcare staff to support your treatment and care.
The national data opt-out was introduced on 25 May 2018, enabling patients to opt out from the use of their data for research or planning purposes, in line with the recommendations of the National Data Guardian.
Opting out
If you do not want your identifiable patient data to be shared for purposes except for your own care, you can opt-out by registering a Type 1 opt-out form or a National Data Opt-out, or both. These opt-outs are different and they are explained in more detail below. Your individual care will not be affected if you opt-out using either option.
Type 1 Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital collecting your data)
Services will not collect data from GP practices about patients who have registered a Type 1 Opt-out with their practice. More information about Type 1 Opt-outs is in our GP Data for Planning and Research Transparency Notice, including a form that you can complete and send to your GP practice.
This collection will start on 1 July 2021 so if you do not want your data to be shared with NHS Digital please register your Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice by 23 June 2021.
If you register a Type 1 Opt-out after this collection has started, no more of your data will be shared. Patient data which was shared before you registered the Type 1
Opt-out will be held by NHS Digital.
If you do not want NHS Digital to share your identifiable patient data with anyone else for purposes beyond your own care, then you can also register a National Data Opt-out.
National Data Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital sharing your data)
NHS Digital will collect data from GP medical records about patients who have registered a National Data Opt-out. The National Data Opt-out applies to identifiable patient data about your health, which is called confidential patient information.
NHS Digital will not share any confidential patient information about you – this includes GP data, or other data held, such as hospital data – with other organisations, unless there is an exemption to this.