Secretary of State Directions

Section 254 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (2012 Act) enables the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to direct NHS England on matters concerning the provision of health services or adult social care in England.

In 2023, the statutory functions of the former NHS Digital transferred to NHS England under the Health and Social Care Information Centre (Transfer of Functions, Abolition and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2023 (Transfer Regulations).

Under the Transfer Regulations, all directions are now treated as directions made by the Secretary of State to NHS England. You can view all the published Directions on our website.

From the transfer date, a number of directions made under section 254 of the 2012 Act have been varied in relation to their publication provisions to ensure that publication of information by NHS England may continue (where appropriate) where directions previously imposed a restriction on publication on NHS Digital. These directions are amended by the NHS England De-Identified Data Analytics and Publication Directions 2023.

NHS DigiTrials Recruitment Service Directions 2026

24 March 2026- A Direction given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care requiring NHS England to establish and operate a system for the collection and analysis of the information to be known as the NHS DigiTrials Recruitment Service. The Pilot NHS DigiTrials Recruitment Support Services Directions 2021 has been revoked

NHS Vaccination and Screening Directions 2026

19 March 2026: A Direction given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care requiring NHS England to establish and operate an information system for the collection and analysis of data relating to national screening programme participants in England.

Delegation of NHS England Direct Commissioning Functions Evaluation and Monitoring of Services Directions 2026

5 March 2026 - new Directions Direction given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to collect and analyse information from health and care bodies relating to services commissioned by Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England by virtue of NHS England’s delegation of its direct commissioning functions (Delegated Functions) to them under section 65Z5 of the 2006 Act.

GPES Data for Consented Research Directions 2026

10 February 2026 - new Directions given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to require NHS England to establish a service to enable certain information held in general practice (GP) health records to be collected and disseminated to specific research studies approved to access that information.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Health and Care Research Pilot Directions 2025

3 September 2025: new Directions. Directions given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to require NHS England to establish and operate a system for the collection and analysis for the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Health and Care Research Pilot Directions’ Information System.

NHS OpenSAFELY Data Analytics Service Pilot Directions 2025

16 June 2025: Directions given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to require NHS England to establish and operate a system for the collection and analysis of the information set out in the NHS OpenSAFELY data analytics service pilot requirements specification.

NHS Notify Service Directions 2025

10 February 2025: Directions given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to require NHS England to establish and operate a system (the NHS Notify Directions System) for the collection and analysis of the information set out in the NHS Notify Service Requirements Specification version 1 (as published with these Directions).

National Proxy Service Directions 2025

17 January 2025: New Directions given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to require NHS England to provide a digital service for individuals registered with a General Practitioner (GP) in England (patients) that enables other authorised individuals to access digital NHS services on behalf of a patient to support the delivery and management of the patient’s care (proxies).

All Age Continuing Care Directions 2024

20 August 2024: Directions from the Department of Health and Social Care to establish an All Age Continuing Care (AACC) information system to collect and analyse data regarding the end-to-end commissioning of AACC services.

Healthcare Operational Data Flows Directions 2024

29 May 2024 - new Directions. Directions to collect and analyse information in order to implement automated granular daily data collections to replace and rationalise existing, less regular local and national data flows, and national aggregated data collections, called SitReps

Secondary Care electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (ePMA) Directions 2024

15 May 2024 - The purpose of the Directions (Purpose) is to enable the collection and analysis of patient level medicines data from secondary care electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (ePMA) systems for medicines prescribed and administered to patients in England.

Outcomes and Registries Directions 2024

14 March 2024- new Directions given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to require NHS England to develop and operate an information system to collect and analyse information from relevant health and social care bodies and other organisations, including private healthcare providers, in England for the purposes of improving clinical safety and patient outcomes.

Community Services Data Set Directions 2020

18 March 2023 - amendment to Directions. Directions to obtain national, comparable, standardised data about Community Services from community services providers

Cancer Programme Pilots Evaluation Directions 2024

19 February 2024 - new Directions. Directions given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to require NHS England to establish an information system for the collection and analysis of data in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the NHS England Cancer Programme Pilots.

National Obesity Audit Directions 2023

3 November 2023 - new Directions. Directions given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to require NHS England to establish the National Obesity Audit (NOA), which will support the implementation of the NHS Long Term Plan which aims to provide better outcomes for the patient.

Pilot NHS DigiTrials Recruitment Support Services Directions 2021 revoked

21 September 2023 - amendment to Directions. A Direction given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care requiring NHS Digital to establish and operate a system for the analysis and linkage of information to be known as the pilot NHS Digitrials Recruitment Support Services Directions Information System.

NHS Wayfinder Services Directions 2023

5 July 2023 - new Directions. Directions given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to require NHS England to develop and operate the NHS Wayfinder programme and related services (collectively the NHS Wayfinder Services).

Cost Recovery Collection, Processing and Dissemination of overseas visitor and UK Patient-Level Data Directions 2021

9 June 2023 - amendment to Directions. A Direction given by the Secretary of State for Health requiring NHS Digital to establish and operate a system for the collection and analysis of data associated with a patient’s eligibility for free NHS services.

Collection of Client Level Adult Social Care Data (No 3) Directions 2023

9 June 2023 - new Directions. Directions given by the Secretary of State for Health requiring NHS England to establish and operate a system for the collection and analysis of client level adult social care data from local authorities, and provide the mandatory information specified, to support local health and care systems.

The migration and continued operation of the Unify2 collections through Strategic Data Collections Service Direction 2017

25 May 2023 - amendment to Directions. A Direction given by the Secretary of State for Health requiring NHS Digital to establish the migration of the Unify2 collections listed in Annex A onto NHS Digital's Strategic Data Collections Service (SDCS) and continue the operation of these collections through this service.

NHS App Directions 2023

20 March 2023 - new Directions. Directions given by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to require NHS England to develop and operate the NHS App Platform and related services (collectively the NHS App Services).

NHS England De-Identified Data Analytics and Publication Directions 2023

1 February 2023 - new Directions. Directions given by the Secretary of State to establish arrangements for the governance of the ongoing processing of de-identified data and a framework for the future analysis, linkage and de-identification of data for analysis by NHS England. Also varying previous directions in relation to restrictions on publication of data.