Data Access Request Service (DARS) performance reporting

All data accurate as of 3rd November 2021.

The graph below shows the mean and median age of DARS research applications from triage to director sign-off. Data represents elapsed working days (3 month rolling average) over time (November 2019 to November 2021).

The mean is significantly higher than the median due to the range of standard, medium and complex applications.

This graph shows cumulative monthly total of DARS applications triaged for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Towards the end of 2018 NHS Digital introduced longer term DSAs which meant 2019/2020 saw a reduced number of renewals and extensions being processed. 

The number of applications triaged into DARS during 2020 shows an increase from last years figures due to:

1. The migration of Medical Research applications away from the bespoke system to standard extracts.
2. Updates involving CCG mergers.
3. Requests for data relating to COVID-19.

This graph shows the median elapsed time from triage to director sign-off for all closed applications in DARS.

The average elapsed time for closed applications is following similar trends to previous years with a median of 40 working days for September 2020. This is despite an increase in application numbers compared to 2019 and the impact of prioritising complex COVID-19 applications.

The concept of 'precedents' was introduced into the approval process in January 2019. It is an accelerated approach to applications which enables NHS Digital senior staff to approve agreements based on a set of criteria agreed with IGARD. An additional 4 precedents are being agreed and will become live by the end of October.

These graphs show a breakdown of the average total working days with NHS Digital and the customer, over the last 3 months for research applications, broken down by application change type.

The horizontal (x) axis groups together stages of the data access request process to show where ownership and responsibility lie. The vertical (y) axis shows the amount of time, in working days, that an application has spent at that time of the application process.

For both new and extensions/renewals applications the positive impact of precedents can be seen, with significantly less time spent by the customer responding to queries and time within NHS Digital considering the application.

NHS Digital is implementing a change program to introduce additional process improvements to look to reduce these times further.