General Practice Information Governance

All requests to NHS Digital for General Practice (GP) information are reviewed by specialist advisory groups, who ensure requests follow best practice, the law and our requirements for good Information Governance (IG). They also ensure requesting organisations follow strict guidelines for handling and using the information we supply.

We've reviewed our advisory groups and processes and, as a result, we've moved to a single, streamlined process for reviewing all requests to commission or access information. This process incorporates the IG principles previous groups referred to.

Independent Advisory Group (IAG) for the General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) reviewed all data requests made to GPES (found in our IAG documents).

Data Access Advisory Group (DAAG) reviewed most applications for data made to NHS Digital (except aggregated data, which is derived from records about multiple people, expressed in summary form).

Standardisation Committee for Care Information (SCCI) considers all requests for GP information collections and oversees development, assurance and approval of information standards, data collections and data extractions.

Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data (IGARD) - succeeding DAAG - advises on data sharing and ensures a systematic approach to the scrutiny of requests for data releases.

All application documents submitted to GPES IAG by organisations requesting data extractions are available in IAG documents.

Find out more about how NHS Digital looks after health and care information and individuals' choices about their personal information.