Posts by Aggienator

UK privacy watchdog confirms probe into NHS England COVID-19 app after complaints of spammy emails, texts

Re: FFS!

There are quite a few other legal gateways to pass PII, and indeed to be required to do so. I suspect that the DHSC has used one of these. There is a lot of data passed to NHS Digital from both GPs and secondary care under these. You can opt out of some, but not all of this through the National Data Opt Out. NHS Digital then produces a register of further disseminations of this data.

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/data-access-request-service-dars/register-of-approved-data-releases

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/data-access-request-service-dars/how-the-national-data-opt-out-affects-data-released-by-nhs-digital

Re: FFS!

I suspect GPs may not have been told to break the law, but that they have used data collected under direction from the DHSC. DHSC has extensive powers to require data from NHS bodies including GPs under a number of routes, including s254 of the 2012 HSCA and the Control of Patient Information Regulations (COPI).

It may be that this will raise public awareness of these powers and stimulate a debate on whether they are appropriate.