​NHS England Data Sharing Audit: University of Bristol (UoB)

Purpose

This report records the key findings of a remote data sharing audit of the University of Bristol (UoB) between 12 – 16 January 2026. It provides an evaluation of how the UoB and its Processor conform to the requirements of:

• the data sharing framework contract (DSFC)
  • CON-304765-H4P3X (Version 2.03)
• the data sharing agreements (DSAs)
  • DARS-NIC-748729-Z8B3M-v0.10 (consented)
  • DARS-NIC-420229-G9H9S-v0.20 (section 251 support)
• the organisations’ own policies, processes and procedures

These DSAs cover the provision of the following datasets:

The Controller is the UoB and the Processor is Swansea University.

The DSA allows the Controller to share data with other organisations under a sub-license agreement.

The UoB requires access to NHS England data for the purposes of the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC). The UK LLC is a ‘Trusted Research Environment’ designed to link study data from major inter-disciplinary Longitudinal Population Studies participants, to a wide range of participants’ health and non-health records and other sources.

The UK LLC aims to provide a data linkage resource to its partner studies and to provide a simple one application process to ONS accredited UK based researchers applying to access linked longitudinal data.

This unique resource enables cross-sector research and supporting research responses to immediate situations and future policy needs. The greater availability of large scale, diverse linked data will help provide improved representation, reduce bias and greater statistical power for researchers to study rarer outcomes and seldom reached populations.

The interviews during the audit were conducted through video conferencing.

This is an exception report based on the criteria expressed in the Data Sharing Audit Guide version 4

Audit type and scope

Data recipient’s acceptance statement

The UoB has reviewed this report and confirmed that it is accurate.

Data recipient’s action plan

The UoB will establish a corrective action plan to address each finding. The Audit Team will validate this plan and the resultant actions will be followed up with the UoB by the IG Risk and Assurance team at NHS England to confirm the findings have been satisfactorily addressed.

The Audit has identified 1 opportunity for improvement which is provided for reference only and will not be followed up.

The following table identifies the 1 agreement nonconformity and 1 point for follow-up raised as part of the audit.

The following table identifies 1 opportunity for improvement which could help an organisation improve its controls or processes.

Use of Data

The UoB confirmed that the datasets were only being processed and used for the purposes defined in the DSAs and were only being linked with those datasets explicitly allowed in the DSAs.

Data Location

The UoB and Swansea University confirmed that processing and storage locations, including disaster recovery and backups, of the datasets were limited to the locations shown in the following table. These locations conform with the territory of use defined in clause 2c of the DSA.

The audit was based upon a sample of the data recipient’s activities, as observed by the Audit Team. The findings detailed in this audit report may not include all possible nonconformities which may exist. In addition, as the audit interviews were conducted through a video conference platform, certain controls that would normally be assessed whilst onsite could not be witnessed. 

NHS England has prepared this audit report for its own purposes. As a result, NHS England does not assume any liability to any person or organisation for any loss or damage suffered or costs incurred by it arising out of, or in connection with, this report, however such loss or damage is caused. NHS England does not assume liability for any loss occasioned to any person or organisation acting or refraining from acting as a result of any information contained in this report.