Authorisation and allocation process
NHS Digital manages and administers the HSCN IP Addressing Policy and the IP Address Management (IPAM) function. The IPAM function manages the allocation and return of subnets from the HSCN IP address space.
View the HSCN IP Address Authorisation and Allocation process
Requests for additional HSCN RIPE addresses
Health and social care organisations that connect to the HSCN and adopt an HSCN allocated RIPE address and NAT at the point of connection, may apply for an additional allocation of HSCN RIPE addresses. This may be, for example, to advertise hosted services that cannot currently be configured to work with NAT. Requests for additional HSCN RIPE addresses are managed via the IP authorisation and allocation request process.
It is important to note that the pool of HSCN RIPE addresses is a limited resource, therefore requests will be carefully scrutinised and allocations rigorously controlled. NHS Digital does not preclude the use of RIPE ranges already owned by the connecting organisation, or organisations obtaining additional subnet assignments from RIPE.
Given that the HSCN RIPE address pool is a finite resource, requests for additional RIPE addresses from health and social care organisations will be prioritised. Therefore, commercial third-party supplier organisations that need to advertise services across the HSCN are advised to use locally owned RIPE assigned addresses or obtain additional subnets from RIPE NCC.
Approval to use NHS Digital RIPE addresses on the internet
The use of NHS Digital assigned RIPE addresses on the Internet must be approved by the NHS Digital IPAM Team. Consumers wishing to do this must send a request to the IPAM Team at [email protected].
Further information and enquiries
For further information and enquiries please email the HSCN IPAM team at [email protected].