GPES data for pandemic planning and research (COVID-19) (GDPPR)

COVID-19 led to increased demand on general practices, including an increasing number of requests to provide patient data to inform planning and support vital research on the cause, effects, treatments and outcomes for patients of the COVID-19 virus.  

To support the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, NHS England was therefore directed to collect and analyse healthcare information about patients, including from their GP record, under the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020 (COVID-19 Direction).

Following the issuing of the GPES Data for Consented Research Directions 2026, the data already being collected under the COVID-19 Direction will also be used to operate a service to share data with specific research studies approved to access their participant data (Approved Research Studies), for certain patients where:

• explicit consent has been provided by or on behalf of the patient to their data being shared with that Approved Research Study for health research; or
• someone, such as a family member (called a consultee) says a patient who lacks capacity should, and in their view would wish to, take part in the research. This is permitted under the Mental Capacity Act 2005

All general practices in England are legally required to share data with NHS England for these purposes under section 259(1)(a) of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. General practices are notified of the requirement to provide data for these purposes through the GDPPR Data Provision Notice (DPN) and GPES Data for Consented Research DPN issued by NHS England.

This collection will reduce burden on general practices, allowing them to focus on delivering health care and support to patients. It will also reduce compliance burden and risk for general practice associated with sharing data.

Organisations, including the Government, health and social care organisations and researchers need access to this data for a range of COVID-19 purposes and health research purposes (where data shared with Approved Research Studies).

COVID-19 purposes for which this data may be analysed and used may include:

• understanding COVID-19 and risks to public health, trends in COVID-19 and such risks and controlling and preventing the spread of COVID-19 and such risks
• identifying and understanding information about patients or potential patients with, or at risk of COVID-19, information about incidents of patient exposure to COVID-19 and the management of patients with or at risk of COVID-19 including: locating, contacting, screening, flagging and monitoring such patients and collecting information about and providing services in relation to testing, diagnosis, self-isolation, fitness to work, treatment, medical and social interventions and recovery from COVID-19
• understanding information about patient access to health services and adult social care services as a direct or indirect result of COVID-19, and the availability and capacity of those services
• monitoring and managing the response to COVID-19 by health and social care bodies and the Government including providing information to the public about COVID-19 and its effectiveness and information about capacity, medicines, equipment, supplies, services and the workforce within health and adult social care services
• delivering services to patients, clinicians, the workforce within health and adult social care services and the public about and in connection with COVID-19, including the provision of information, fit notes and the provision of health care and adult social care services
• research and planning in relation to COVID-19

Where GDPPR is shared with Approved Research Studies under the GPES Data for Consented Research Directions 2026, the data will be used to enable Approved Research Studies to access more comprehensive information about the health of participants, allowing them to study a wider range of diseases and avoiding potential biases if information held in GP records is excluded. The Approved Research Studies may be:

• interventional - where what happens to at least some of those taking part (known as participants) is changed because of their involvement. For example, some participants may be given a new treatment or medicine; or
• observational - where the research team take measurements and study what happens to those taking part in the study but without changing anything else

Data may be analysed and linked to other data held by NHS England or data held by other organisations to which access to the data is granted for COVID-19 or Approved Research Study purposes. This is managed via the Data Access Request Service (DARS), with oversight provided by the Advisory Group for Data (AGD) and Profession Advisory Group (PAG).

Data will be collected using the General Practice Extraction Service (GPES).

NHS England retains responsibility and accountability at all times for the dissemination of GDPPR as the Data Controller under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). It will do so through ensuring that requests for data are necessary, proportionate, that the minimum amount of data necessary for the purpose only is shared and that the transfer and use of the data shared will be secure and lawful.

For further information regarding who we share data with for COVID-19 purposes, please see our GDPPR Transparency Notice.

For further information regarding the sharing of data with Approved Research Studies under the GPES Data for Consented Research Directions 2026, please see our GPES Data for Consented Research Transparency Notice. 

General practices should comply with requirement to provide the data, notified via the issuing of the GDPPR Data Provision Notice, by registering their participation on the Calculating Quality Reporting Service (CQRS).

General practices have a legal duty to be transparent and to provide patients with transparency information under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) about the data they are sharing with NHS England.

General practices also need to update their transparency notices on their websites to include details of this collection. NHS England has produced a  template general practice transparency notice which practices can use to do this. As well as a GPES Data for Consented Research Transparency Notice. You can also link to these by publishing the following statement and links on your website:

This practice is supporting vital COVID-19 planning and research, and enabling Approved Research Studies to access their participant data, where participant consent, parental consent or consultee support (as established by virtue of sections 30-33 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005) is in place, by sharing your data with NHS England. For more information about this see the General Practice Transparency Notice for GPES Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19) and the GPES Data for Consented Research Transparency Notice.