Secure data environments

Secure data environments (SDEs) are data storage and access platforms, which uphold the highest standards of privacy and security of NHS health and social care data when used for research and analysis.

SDEs give only approved users access to relevant health data for research and analysis, without the raw data ever leaving the SDE. The organisation providing the environment can control many factors, including:

who can be a user
the data that users can access
what users can do in the environment
the findings of analysis that users can remove

Benefits of SDEs

There are many things that improve through SDEs, including:

Patient privacy

SDEs must apply techniques to remove personal details. This makes sure that patient information remains confidential.

Security

NHS data will only be hosted on systems that can prove they have high levels of protection.

Efficiency

Preparing data so it is ready for analysis or research can take time. SDEs enable many different sources of data to be linked, so prepared data can be more easily accessed if needed again. This means that researchers and analysts can access bigger sets of data faster and speeds up the discovery of new treatments.

Wider rules that apply to SDEs

SDEs must comply with the robust existing legal frameworks to keep data safe and used correctly. The UK has high data protection standards to control how personal information is used. These include;

the Codes of Practice under the Data Protection Act 2018
the Data Ethics Framework
standards set out by the National Data Guardian for health and care and regulatory bodies.

SDEs must also adhere to the Five Safes framework, an internationally recognised system promoting the best practice in data security and privacy.

Last edited: 4 June 2026 11:02 am