Patient Level Information and Costing System (PLICS) transparency notice

PLICS data is collected from NHS providers (publicly funded providers of Acute, Mental Health, Improving Access to Psychological Therapies, Ambulance and Community Services).

The data is collected for the purposes of informing new methods of providing or pricing NHS services, for benchmarking and to enable NHS providers to maximise the use of their resources and to improve efficiencies. 

This page also contains a link to suggested transparency information designed to support care providers that are submitting PLICS Data. The transparency information need not be produced as a separate information leaflet for patients but can be incorporated into existing material.

Under sections 255 and 256 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (the 2012 Act) Monitor (now referred to as NHS Improvement) has submitted Mandatory Requests to NHS Digital, that require us to collect and analyse PLICS data from NHS providers in England to support the aims and objectives of NHS Improvement’s Costing Transformation Programme. The Mandatory Requests provide the legal basis for us to collect PLICS data. The scope of the PLICS data collected is set out in Requirements Specifications, which are published within or alongside each Mandatory Request.

Under Section 259(1) of the Act 2012, we have issued Data Provision Notices (DPNs) to the NHS providers that hold the PLICS data. The DPNs, which are published on the NHS Digital website, are a legal obligation on an NHS provider in scope of the collection to submit the PLICS data to NHS Digital.

Under UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) we can only collect and use personal data if we have a legal basis under Articles 6 and 9 of the UK GDPR.

Our legal basis for collecting and analysing personal data is Article 6(1)(c) legal obligation, as we are required to do this to by the Mandatory Requests.

As the data we collect is health data, which is a special category of data under UK GDPR, we also need an additional legal basis under Article 9 of UK GDPR. This is Article 9(2)(g) – because the processing of the data is substantially in the public interest and in accordance with the law, for the purposes of NHS Digital exercising its statutory functions under the Mandatory Requests. It is substantially in the public interest to support NHS Improvement and providers to develop new methods of pricing or providing NHS services, and to support providers to maximise the use of their resources and to improve efficiencies. This is also permitted under paragraph 6 of Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

The list of data we collect (including personal data) for the PLICS is contained within the relevant Requirement Specifications published within or alongside each Mandatory Request.

PLICS data is submitted by providers to NHS Digital via our Secure Electronic File Transfer (SEFT) system. Data is then processed, including further data quality checks, calculations and derivations being undertaken if relevant, and then the data is pseudonymised before being provided to NHS Improvement.

PLICS data may also be linked to other data sets held by us, such as the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Mental Health Service Data Set (MHSDS), Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), and Community Services Data Set (CSDS). In the future, PLICS data may also be linked to the Ambulance Data Set (ADS) which is still in a pilot phase.

We treat the data we hold with great care. All data which is shared by NHS Digital is subject to robust rules relating to privacy, security and confidentiality and only the minimum amount of data necessary to achieve the relevant health and social care purpose will ever be shared.

Data is shared or is expected to be shared with organisations such as healthcare providers, clinicians, commissioners of NHS services, and NHS Improvement, for example:

• the organisation that provided your care: to assess the effectiveness of your care and to improve the services they offer
• NHS Improvement: to support the aims and objectives of NHS Improvement’s Costing Transformation Programme
• NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and other bodies which are responsible for arranging the provision of health services in England, such as Integrated Care Boards: to help plan and improve NHS healthcare services
• research organisations, including universities and charities: to carry out research

Details about the PLICS data we have shared with other organisations, except for anonymous data, is published in the NHS Digital Data Uses Register. 

Anonymous data is also published on the NHS Digital website to inform patients and the public. Data collected during pilot collections will not be published.

This applies to identifiable patient data about your health which is called confidential patient information. If you do not want your confidential patient information to be shared by NHS Digital for purposes except your own care you can register a National Data Opt-out. 

You can find out more about and register a National Data Opt-out or change your choice on nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters.

NHS Digital will keep PLICS data for as long as it is necessary for the purposes outlined above in accordance with the Records Management Code of Practice 2021 and our Records Management Policy.

Other organisations we share your personal data with must only keep it for as long as is necessary and as set out in their Data Sharing Agreement. Information about this will be provided in their privacy notices on their websites.

PLICS data will be stored and processed within the United Kingdom (UK).

You can read more about the health and care information collected by NHS Digital, and your choices and rights in:

• How we look after your health and care information
• NHS Digital Transparency Notice
• How to make a subject access request

Our Data Protection Officer is Jon Moore who can be contacted at [email protected].

We may make changes to this Transparency Notice. If we do, the 'last edited' date on this page will also change. Any changes to this notice will apply immediately from the date of any change.

NHS Digital has received Mandatory Requests under sections 255 and 256 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (the 2012 Act) from Monitor (now referred to as NHS Improvement). These request that NHS Digital collects and analyses Patient Level Information and Costing Systems (PLICS) data from NHS Trusts (providers) in England to support the aims and objectives of NHS Improvement’s Costing Transformation Programme.

Providers are legally required to submit returns of PLICS data, in accordance with the Data Provision Notices (DPNs) issued to them under section 259(1)(a) of the 2012 Act. However, providers may themselves exclude records that are subject to any other restriction on disclosure, such as by other laws.

Patients using the services covered by the PLICS data collection must be made aware by the provider that their personal data will be shared with NHS Digital.  

Ensuring fairness is the responsibility of the provider from which the data will be collected but NHS Digital has provided some suggested wording below.

Providers can be assured that the processing of this information will not have any adverse impact upon their patients as the data will be held securely with limited access for those NHS Digital employees with the requisite clear data access in line with standard NHS Digital processing. Any published outputs are in aggregate anonymous form with disclosure control applied, which ensures patients are not inadvertently identified.

A key transparency requirement under the UK GDPR is that individuals have the ‘right to be informed’ about the collection and use of their personal data. The following suggested wording is intended to be incorporated into a provider’s existing information for patients. It does not need to be a separate leaflet.