Data Access Request Service (DARS) products and services

The NHS England Data Access Request Service (DARS) is the gateway to request access to a range of different data access services. DARS serves a wide range of users who request access to NHS health and social care data for secondary use purposes including research and commissioning. To understand more make an enquiry.

Data available from the Data Access Request Service is for research, planning, and commissioning can be broadly categorised into three main data areas.

Activity data

Includes data about the health care treatment for individuals throughout all services of the NHS from acute care, outpatient, mental health, to prescribing. Data from patient health and adult social care records can help improve individual care, speed up diagnosis, plan local services and research new treatments.

Demographic data

Information that describes the characteristics of the population. It includes details such as age, gender, ethnicity, geographic location.

The purpose of the use of demographic data is to help businesses, researchers and policymakers understand different groups of people for public planning, healthcare, and social studies to identify trends and make informed decisions.

Reference data

Is largely embedded in all our data products such as LSOA mappings or electoral boundary codes

Services to access data

DARS enables requests to access data to be matched to the best available service(s) to access data to meet their needs.

NHS England is committed to only releasing patient and service user data to those who have a genuine need for it and can demonstrate this to an independent oversight panel.

Below are the data sets and metadata available through the DARS service. The data set catalogue also contains information about the services to access data available for each data set.

Data set catalogue

Data sets readily available to request through DARS

DARS data sets

we do not make all our data sets available for public release
some data sets are only available to those organisations which commission and pay for health and care services
other data sets may only be available to a listed number of approved users to enquire about any other data set not listed contact the DARS applications team

It is not possible to reproduce results from NHS England statistical outputs using data accessed via an NHS England data sharing agreement as there are differences in how data can be handled for internal use, and how it can be handled for external use. Examples of reasons that can cause these differences are:

timing of creation of data for a DSA, for example opt outs, resubmissions
some data or fields have restrictions applied for external sharing Versus internal sharing, for example records relating to certain occupation codes, S-Flags etc
bespoke minimisation
small number suppression rules

Future products available via DARS

The table below highlights new and upcoming products that are currently being onboarded. It provides a brief description of each dataset and outlines their current status. This information is shared to offer early visibility of forthcoming products that will become available through our services, helping users understand what data is being prepared for future access.

Product name	Product description	Status	Date updated
E-referrals Services	The NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) is a national IT system that enables patient referrals, primarily from GPs to first hospital or clinic appointments, to be booked into health care services at a location, date and time to suit the patient. The e-RS dataset provides an opportunity to understand the impact of referral management service models and the impact of demand and utilisation of NHS services.	Being onboarded	29 September 2026
NICOR Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI)	The Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) registry captures and reports outcomes on TAVI procedures performed in the UK.	Being onboarded
DIDs v2.0	Diagnostic Imaging Data Set (DIDS) version 2.0 will be used to collect diagnostic imaging data locally. This update is being made so the data set can meet user needs that have arisen since it was first introduced.	Being onboarded
National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) Breast screening After Radiotherapy Data set (BARD)	A confidential database of women in England who have received radiotherapy involving breast tissue when aged between 10 - 35 years. This data aims to improve long term outcomes in this patient population and has been set up to ensure all patients at increases risk of breast cancer following radiotherapy are offered breast screening in line with national guidelines.	Being onboarded	29 September 2026

Please note that exact release dates cannot be disclosed due to constraints on resource and availability during the onboarding process of these products.

Contact us

If you have any queries that are not answered by the online resources listed for each data set, please contact the data applications team.

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 0300 303 5678

Last edited: 29 September 2026 1:35 pm