NHS Digital ceased sharing updates to the SPL with organisations after September 2021.
We previously shared relevant information from the Shielded Patient List with organisations who have responsibilities for providing care and support to the patients on the List. This includes:
- GP practices about their own patients on the List
- NHS hospitals about their own patients on the List
- healthcare staff in prescribed places of detention (for example prisons) about their own patients on the List
- Other NHS organisations, Government departments and local authorities. This included the Cabinet Office who were responsible for providing the Extremely Vulnerable Persons Service. More information about how the Cabinet Office used personal data for that Service, who it shared information with and how long it will keep the information following the closure of the Service is explained in its privacy notice.
Following a consultation with recipients of the SPL in October and November 2021 and the emergence of a new variant of COVID-19, NHS Digital and the Department of Health and Social Care have agreed that there are ongoing needs for recipients to process the Disclosed Data they currently hold.
This is for the purposes of:
- providing ongoing direct care and support to those people who were previously clinically extremely vulnerable and were on the Shielded Patient List where recipient’s feel this is necessary
- the forthcoming independent statutory Public Inquiry into the UK response to the Covid-19 pandemic (Public Inquiry). Many NHS and social care organisations are ensuring (where feasible) that documents and evidence relating to the pandemic are preserved in case they are required by the Public Inquiry. This may include the SPL data they hold
We also used and share information from the Shielded Patient List for planning, commissioning and research purposes, including clinical trials, relating to coronavirus. This included sharing information with NHS organisations, government departments, other public authorities and research organisations.
We will only share identifiable information about those patients on the Shielded Patient List where it is lawful for us to do so and under a terms of release letter which:
- details the terms of release and the agreed purposes for which the data can be used
- identifies other organisations who may be permitted to use or receive the data and for what agreed purposes
- sets out the lawful basis for sharing and using the data
- obtains commitments from the recipient to the secure handling and management of the data, including its destruction once the agreed purposes have been met
We will also publish and share data from the List which we have anonymised, so that no individuals can be identified from that data.
This will enable NHS and other organisations to use this anonymous data for statistical analysis and for planning, commissioning and research purposes as part of the response to coronavirus.
To keep patients informed of their risk of complications from COVID-19, as well as to provide relevant advice, guidance and support as and when necessary, information was also shared with national processing partners for the purposes of issuing letters and emails to patients.
Read more details here about the organisations with whom we have shared information from the Shielded Patient List.