DAPB0086: Data Security and Protection Toolkit

The Data Security and Protection (DSP) Toolkit is an online tool that enables relevant organisations to measure their performance against the data security and information governance requirements mandated by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), notably the 10 data security standards set out by the National Data Guardian in the 2016 Review of data security, consent and opt-outs.

All organisations that have access to NHS patient data and systems must use this Toolkit to provide assurance that they are practising good data security and that personal information is handled correctly. Such organisations are required to carry out self-assessments of their compliance against the assertions and evidence contained within the DSP Toolkit.

This information standard is published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. An Information Standards Notice (see below) provides an overview of scope and implementation timescales, and the Specification and Implementation Documents provide further detail for those who have to implement the information standard.

19 September 2023: A minor editorial change has been made to Requirements Specification: Appendix 1 (uplifted to version 1.5). Headers in rows F-H have been updated to reflect all organisation types in Category 1. 

6 September 2022: Publication of Corrigendum in respect of Version 5.0 (Amd 23/2022), supported by changes to the Requirements Specification: Appendix 1 (uplifted to document version 1.2). See Corrigendum in the table 'Release for 2022-23 (3 August 2022 to 30 June 2023)' above, for full details.

11 August 2022: Following publication of Version 5.0 (Amd 23/2022) on the 3 August 2022, an error was identified in the Requirements Specification - Appendix 1, in relation to mandatory nature of three requirements: 10.2.4, 8.1.3 and 10.2.3.  The Requirements Specification - Appendix 1 document has now been updated with the corrections.

In addition, the 'Total number of mandatory evidence items 2022-23 v5' for Category 1 organisations has been adjusted in the Change Specification (figure 2, page 7) from 112 to 113. 

Both updated documents are available in the 2022-23 release table above (as 'Version 1.1'). 

19 May 2022: Publication of Corrigendum in respect of Version 4.0 (Amd 36/2021), supported by changes to the Change Specification, Change Specification: Appendix A and Requirements Specification: Appendix 1 (all uplifted to document version 1.1). See Corrigendum in the table 'Release for 2021-22 (20 July 2021 to 30 June 2022)' above, for full details.

12 February 2021: Following publication of Version 3.1 in December 2020, an error was identified in the the Change Specification and Information Standards Notice (ISN), in relation to the description of the changes. This has now been corrected, and the correction has been signposted with a footnote in the updated documents, which are are available above (as 'Version 2.0'). 

10 December 2020: Note that Version 3.0 of the DSP Toolkit (Amd 89/2019) was released in April 2020 but, due to the extension to the conformance date of Version 2.0 of the DSP Toolkit, Version 3.0 was not implemented. Version 3.0 is now withdrawn as it is wholly superseded by Version 3.1 (above).  Documents for Version 3.0 have been removed from this page but are available on request from [email protected]