GPES Data for Consented Research service

Data from GP records helps support important health research. In the past, this data was not always shared with researchers, even when people agreed to take part. This was because GP practices had to check each person’s consent before sharing any information. This took a lot of time and effort.  

NHS England already collects this data from GP practices for certain purposes relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. To meet study participants’ wishes, enable research and avoid burden on GP practices, NHS England will share some of this data with specific research studies approved to access their participant data (approved research studies). NHS England will only share data for patients where:

• explicit consent has been provided by or on behalf of the patient to their data being shared with the 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

The requirements for approved research studies to receive data through the service (access criteria) are:

• the study has obtained explicit consent from or on behalf of participants as described above. The consenting or consulting process and the management of consent and consultee consultation must be lawful and appropriate
• the study must meet current and future NHS security standards for holding participant data as laid out in the Data Security and Protection Toolkit
• if participant data is to be made available to other organisations under a sub-licence from NHS England, access by sub-licensees should be through a Secure Data Environment (SDE) that complies with all Department of Health and Social Care policy on SDEs for health and social care data
• data may only be accessed from the UK or countries permitted by NHS England under a relevant data sharing agreement with processes in place to comply with UK GDPR in relation to overseas access
• the study has the support of their patient and public involvement and engagement groups to access participants’ GP data and has communicated to their participants that they intend to access this data

The service may be accessed by approved research studies through NHS England’s Data Access Request Service (DARS). Before applying studies need to establish that they can meet all the access criteria, including those set out in the Directions requirements specification, and be approved by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.

The service will open for applications who meet the access criteria in due course. We are currently processing applications to use the service from the following research studies:

• Genomics England
• Our Future Health
• UK Biobank

The service does not currently provide access to GP data for clinical trials. It is only available for large research studies that will use the data in a Secure Data Environment that meets the standards set out in the access criteria.

Further information about this data collection is available within the Direction and Data Provision Notice.  

You can find transparency information about this data collection and the NHS legal basis for processing in the Transparency Notice. 

Further information is also available through our information governance portal.