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Understanding access charges to the SDE

We apply charges to cover the cost of processing and delivering our service. We ensure charges are applied fairly and consistently, broadly determined by the amount of effort and approvals required.

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Our current charging model is broken down into 3 elements:

  • charges for a DARS application
  • charges for the production of data
  • charges for the access and use of the SDE

Charges for DARS application

These prices represent an overview of charges that will be applied as part of your Data Sharing Agreement and SDE service charges:

Table of charges
Price from 1 April 2026
Service components   Unit cost
Application type New application £1,431
Amendment/ renewal/ extension £1,138
Annual review fee   £694

Visit Data Access Request Service (DARS) charges for more information.

SDE data charges

Data provision

A data provision fee is charged for each product available in your environment and depends on the complexity of the product.

Price from 1 April 2026
Per product £488 to £976

Additional data periods

Historical data per period per product.

Price from 1 April 2026
Per product/period £38

Data refresh

A data refresh fee is charged for each product each time the data is refreshed in your SDE. Charges range per product per refresh and depend on the complexity of the product.

Price from 1 April 2026
Per product £16 to £54

Import and output request checking

Each authorised user can submit up to 20 import reference data or output check requests per calendar month. Any additional requests are charged per check.

Price from 1 April 2026
Per additional request over 20 per month £11

 

Submission of cohort file/participant data

A cohort submission fee is charged for submitting a cohort.

Price from 1 April 2026
  £586

 

Import Research Data

An Import Research Data fee is charged for the validation and processing of your research data into the SDE.

Price from 1 April 2026
  £3,254
Per additional refresh of Research Data £1,095

 

SDE access charges

Confirmed charges from 1 April 2026:

Charge type Price from 1 April 2026
One-time SDE set-up fee £434

Monthly user account fee*. Includes:

  • 250 compute unit allowance, per user
  • 4GB virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) memory size
  • RStudio desktop
  • 1TB storage included per user 
 £472

 

Optional user account charges Price from 1 April 2026
Excess compute per unit** £1.89
Storage utilisation (over 1TB)*** £0.020 per GB

Upgraded VDI (per month, per user):

  • 8GB
  • 16GB
  • 32GB

 

£27
£70
£157

Stata licence price available on request.

These charges are subject to VAT (at the current rate) if applicable.

* All user accounts which have been active, including accounts which were deleted or deactivated within the month, will be charged the standard fee.

** Excess compute per unit is calculated in total across all accounts, not per user. For example, if you have 2 users and they use 50 and 300 DBUs in one month respectively, the total usage will be calculated as 350 out of the total 500 DBU included allowance.

*** Excess storage is also calculated in total across all accounts, not per user. For example, if you have 2 users and they use 800GB and 1,100GB in one month respectively, the total usage will be calculated as 1,900GB out of the total 2TB (2,000 GB) included allowance.

Bespoke requirements

The above costs model is for standard usage of data - there may be additional charges which are not represented above and subject to terms and conditions.

Depending on your specific requirements, we may need to employ a specialist to carry out bespoke work. This will be charged at £1,084 per day of bespoke work carried out and will be discussed with you ahead of starting any work.

Cost example SDE vs Data Extract

Application type: New application for a 3-year data sharing agreement (DSA), from a non-commercial organisation. No plans to retain the data beyond the end of the DSA.

Product: Historical data requested for periods 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26, and future data for 2026/27, 2027/28 and 2028/29 (6 associated product years).

Products requested:

  • Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care (APC) - medium complexity
  • Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Critical Care (CC) - low complexity
  • Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Out Patient (OP)  - medium complexity
  • Emergency Care Data set (ECDS) - medium complexity
  • Civil Registrations (Deaths) - medium complexity

In addition, we set out the additional charges if the below are required:

  • Submission of cohort file/participant data
  • Import Research Data

We have provided 3 examples of the cost with a comparison to the cost of a data extract. These are:

  • Example 1 – where monthly refresh of data is required
  • Example 2 – where quarterly refresh of data is required
  • example 3 – where only one-off refresh is required
Example 1 - Monthly refresh of data requested
Costs - monthly data Unit price Quantity DARS Data Extract SDE
New application £1,431 1 £1,431 £1,431
Annual review £694 2 £1,388 £1,388
Dissemination/refresh

£1,290 per dissemination (extract)

£16 (low complexity dataset), £27 (x4 medium complexity datasets) per dataset per refresh (SDE)

Historic Data disseminated in first dissemination

 36 £46,440 £4,464
Data Volumes including historic data files £445 (extract) or £38 (SDE) per dataset per period of data

39 (extract), 3 (SDE - historic only)

*5 years

 £86,775 £570
Data Provisioning into SDE

£488 (low complexity dataset), £705 (medium complexity datasets)

 5 Not applicable £3,308
SDE Set up £434 1 Not applicable £434
SDE Access for 1 user £472 per user per month 36 Not applicable £16,992
Subtotal (NHS England data only required)     £136,034 £28,587

 

Cohort Linkage to NHS Data
Submission of Cohort  £586 1 £586 £586
Linkage to Cohort £2,862 (extract, per linked dataset per dissemination) / no charge (SDE) 2 datasets *36 disseminations (extract) / Not applicable (SDE) £206,064 £0
 Subtotal (including cohort linkage)      £342,684 £29,173

 

Bring Your Own Data
Submission of Customer Data* £nil (extract) / £3,254 (SDE) 1 £0 £3,254

 

Total 3-year cost     £342,684 £32,427
Example 2 - Quarterly refresh of data requested
Costs - quarterly data Unit Price Quantity DARS Data Extract SDE
New application £1,431 1 £1,431 £1,431
Annual review £694 2 £1,388 £1,388
Dissemination/refresh

£1,290 per dissemination (extract)

£16 (low complexity dataset), £27 (x4 medium complexity datasets) per dataset per refresh (SDE)

Historic Data disseminated in first dissemination

 12 £15,480 £1,488
Data Volumes including historic data files £445 (extract) or £38 (SDE) per dataset per period of data

15 (extract), 3 (SDE - historic only)

*5 years

 £33,375 £570
Data Provisioning into SDE £488 (low complexity dataset), £705 (medium complexity datasets) 5 Not applicable £3,308
SDE Set up £434 1 Not applicable £434
SDE Access for 1 user £472 per user per month 36 Not applicable £16,992
 Subtotal (NHS England data only required)      £51,674 £25,611

 

Cohort Linkage to NHS Data
Submission of cohort £586 1 £586 £586
Linkage to Cohort £2,862 (extract, per linked dataset per dissemination) / no charge (SDE) 2 datasets *12 disseminations (extract) / Not applicable (SDE) £68,688 £0
Subtotal (including cohort linkage)     £120,948 £26,197
Bring Your Own Data
Submission of Customer Data * £nil (extract) / £3,254 (SDE) 1 £0 £3,254

 

Total 3-year cost     £120,948 £29,451
Example 3 - One-off data requested
Costs - one-off data Unit price Quantity DARS Data Extract SDE
New application £1,431 1 £1,431 £1,431
Annual review £694 2 £1,388 £1,388
Dissemination/refresh

£1,290 per dissemination (extract)

£16 (low complexity dataset), £27 (x4 medium complexity datasets) per dataset per refresh (SDE)

Historic Data disseminated in first dissemination

 1 £1,290 £124
Data Volumes including historic data files £445 (extract) or £38 (SDE) per dataset per period of data

4 (extract), 3 (SDE - historic only)

*5 years

 £8,900 £570
Data Provisioning into SDE £488 (low complexity dataset), £705 (medium complexity datasets) 5 Not applicable £3,308
SDE set up £434 1 Not applicable £434
SDE Access for 1 user £472 per user per month 36 Not applicable £16,992
Subtotal (NHS England data only required)     £13,009 £24,247

 

Cohort Linkage to NHS Data
Submission of cohort £586 1 £586 £586
Linkage to Cohort £2,862 (extract, per linked dataset per dissemination) / no charge (SDE) 2 datasets *1 dissemination (extract) / Not applicable (SDE) £5,724 £0
Subtotal (including cohort linkage)     £19,319 £24,833
Bring Your Own Data
Submission of Customer Data * £nil (extract) / £3,254 (SDE) 1 £0 £3,254

 

Total 3-year cost     £19,319 £28,087

* Further refreshes of customer data will be charged at £1,095 per customer submission.

Last edited: 26 June 2026 4:33 pm