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<p>As set out in the answer of 21 January 2019 to Question 209287, there has been
no change in policy with regards to obtaining consent of a patient for the purposes
of an inquiry or investigation.</p><p> </p><p>Paragraph 24 of Schedule 1 to the Data
Protection Act 2018 sets out the circumstances in which special categories of personal
data, which would include health data, can be disclosed to Members of Parliament without
the controller - here, the National Health Service body - having to obtain explicit
consent from the data subject. This is discussed in the House of Commons Briefing
Paper, Number 1,936 of 31 October 2018 ‘Data protection: constituency casework’ at
the following link:</p><p> </p><p><a href="http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01936/SN01936.pdf"
target="_blank">http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01936/SN01936.pdf</a></p><p>
</p><p>However, it remains the responsibility of the National Health Service body
to satisfy itself that there is a legal basis under the General Data Protection Regulation/Data
Protection Act for processing patient information (i.e. disclosing and sharing it
for the purposes of the investigation).</p><p> </p><p>In the earlier answers to Questions
209287 and <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2clords&uin=208761"
target="_blank">208761</a>, we said that a National Health Service body ‘must’ obtain
the consent of the patient before disclosing patient information held by it in order
to progress an inquiry from a Member of Parliament. There are circumstances in which
a National Health Service body may provide patient information to a Member of Parliament
without the Member evidencing the consent of the patient, so long as that information
is provided in accordance with the requirements set out in paragraph 24 of Schedule
1 to the Data Protection Act 2018. We are arranging for the record to be corrected.</p>
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