COVID-19 Unpaid Carers Data

The Data Provision Notices published on this page are to support the national COVID-19 Vaccination Programme which NHS England has been commissioned by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to operate. 

As the organisation with operational responsibility for the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme in England, NHS England needs to identify members of the public who act as unpaid carers so that it can invite them for vaccination immediately as part of a priority cohort. It is necessary to identify these individuals and then determine their contact details so that they can be invited to book a vaccination urgently and from October 2021 a vaccination booster.

NHS Digital is the owner of the Patient Demographics Service (PDS) and is the Controller for the data contained within the PDS. On collection of the data specified in the Notices, NHS Digital will link the PDS demographic data with each respective individual’s NHS Number using PDS data.  A list of NHS Numbers will then be provided by NHS Digital to NHS England so that the individuals in question can be invited for vaccination by NHS England.

These Notices are served on:

• Department of Work and Pensions
• Local Authorities

Department of Work and Pensions

• The collection will commence from the date this DPN is provided to DWP and will be two separate one-off collections of the data. 

• There is also an update to allow collection of data to support the vaccination booster programme; processing is expected to take no more than one month from 1 October 2021.

Local Authorities

• The collection will commence from the date this DPN is published (2 March 2021) and will be for a period of 14 days. 

Update: 19 October 2021: Version 2.0 of the Notice on the Department of Work and Pensions has been issued in respect of the COVID-19 vaccination booster programme.