Open call for evidence

Review of CQC Regulation 9A: visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals and hospices

Published 28 May 2025

Applies to England

Summary

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is conducting a review of the effectiveness of Regulation 9A of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 on visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals and hospices, one year from the regulation coming into force. (We refer to this as ‘Regulation 9A’ throughout the document.)

This call for evidence will inform the review of Regulation 9A. DHSC is seeking your views and experiences of visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals and hospices since Regulation 9A came into force on 6 April 2024.

In Regulation 9A, ‘accompanying’ refers to someone who is attending an appointment with someone in a hospital or hospice that does not require an overnight stay. This might be a:

• family member​
• friend​
• advocate​
• person who is otherwise providing support to the service user

This survey is about visits from and accompaniment by family members, friends, partners, advocates, carers, volunteers such as befrienders, and any person visiting to provide support or companionship to the service user. It is not considering access to visiting professionals, including care workers.

The call for evidence includes questions on:

• experiences of visiting and accompanying before Regulation 9A came into force
• the effectiveness of Regulation 9A
• raising concerns
• impacts of Regulation 9A on individuals and on providers

If responding as an organisation, please answer on behalf of the people and providers you represent.

Responses will be anonymised and will not be linked to the individual respondent. Do not include information in your responses that could identify an individual or member of the public.

DHSC will be using artificial intelligence (AI) to support analysis and summary of responses to this call for evidence. However, there will be human oversight, and all responses will be manually reviewed to ensure accuracy. The final report on the review of Regulation 9A will be written by humans, not AI. More information on this can be found in the ‘Privacy notice’ section below.

If you have any questions, contact visiting@dhsc.gov.uk.

About Regulation 9A

Contact with family and friends plays a crucial role in maintaining good health and wellbeing for care home residents and patients and must remain a priority for all health and care providers.

Following the consultation on proposals for visiting legislation, DHSC introduced legislation to create a new Care Quality Commission (CQC) Fundamental Standard under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 on visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals and hospices. The regulation explains what providers must do to make sure they respect the right of each person to receive visits and to be accompanied, following an assessment of their needs and preferences.

Regulation 9A aims to make sure:

• people staying in a care home, hospital or hospice can receive visits from people they want to see
• people living in a care home are not discouraged from taking visits outside the home
• people attending appointments in a hospital or hospice, that do not require an overnight stay, can be accompanied by a family member, friend or advocate if they want someone with them

These can only be exempted where there is an exceptional circumstance which means that a visit or accompaniment would pose a significant risk to the health, safety or wellbeing of someone on the premises.

Complaints about visiting and accompanying  

This survey is not intended to be used to collect complaints or concerns about individual cases for action by either DHSC or CQC. However, responses may be shared with CQC for information, regulatory monitoring and oversight purposes.

If after filling in this survey you would like to raise a complaint or concern about visiting or accompanying in or out of a care home, hospital or hospice, you should contact the service provider directly.

Additionally, you can contact CQC with feedback through its give feedback on care online form. While CQC does not investigate individual complaints, it uses information received about the services it regulates to inform its monitoring of these services and plan for any necessary regulatory or follow-up action.

If you find it difficult to understand your care and support or find it hard to speak up, there are people who can act as a spokesperson for you. They make sure you’re heard and are called advocates. For more information, see VoiceAbility: NHS complaints advocacy. 

Adult social care complaints

If you have concerns about visiting or believe that a health or social care provider is not following guidance or regulations, you can, firstly, provide feedback or make a complaint to the provider. Complaints can also be made to the local authority if the placement is funded by the authority, or you can approach the integrated care board (ICB) if the placement is funded by the NHS.

If you are not happy with the response from the provider, contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman about the complaint.

NHS complaints

To make a complaint about any aspect of NHS care, treatment or service, you should follow the NHS complaints process. The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) provides free, confidential and independent advice to help resolve issues with the hospital in the first instance.

If you are not happy with the response from the health provider, contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman about the complaint.

Hospice complaints

To make a complaint about hospice care, you should make a complaint to the provider in the first instance.

If you are not happy with the response from the hospice, you can make a complaint through your ICB or contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. 

Review of Regulation 9A

In April 2025, DHSC launched a review of Regulation 9A.

The review will consider whether, since coming into force on 6 April 2024, Regulation 9A has been effective in meeting its objective to ensure that:

• providers of care homes, hospitals and hospices facilitate visits
• visits out of care homes are not discouraged
• providers facilitate patients to be accompanied when attending a hospital or hospice as an outpatient

The review process includes a call for evidence survey, focus groups and reviewing available evidence and data.

The review will cover adult social care and health settings. It will consider the experiences of those receiving care, their families, friends and carers, health and care providers, as well as information from CQC, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman.

This call for evidence seeks information on how Regulation 9A has influenced visiting and accompanying practice and what the impact has been on individuals and providers.

Call for evidence questions

This survey is about views and experiences of visiting and accompanying in England since Regulation 9A came into force on 6 April 2024.

Question

Are you responding about health or care settings in England?

• Yes
• No

Selecting ‘no’ will end the survey.

About you

Question

In what capacity are you responding to this survey?

• An individual sharing my personal views and experiences (such as a patient, care home resident, carer, or member of the public who has visited someone in a care home, hospital or hospice)
• An individual sharing my professional views (such as a member of staff at a care home, hospital or hospice)
• On behalf of an organisation

Questions for organisations

Question

What type of organisation are you responding on behalf of?

• A provider organisation (a care home, hospital or hospice)
• An organisation for patients, care home residents or carers

Question

What is the name of your organisation?

Some questions are addressed both to individuals sharing their personal views and to organisations representing the interests of patients, care home residents or carers.

In these questions, we refer to the respondent as ‘you’. If responding on behalf of an organisation, please answer on behalf of the patients, care home residents or carers you represent.

Question for individuals sharing their personal views and experiences

Question

Which of the following best describes you?

• A patient or care home resident
• A carer
• A member of the public who has visited someone in a care home, hospital or hospice, or accompanied someone to an appointment

Question for individuals sharing their professional views

Question

Which of the following best describes you?

• A registered person or manager of a care home
• A registered person or nominated individual, or a member of a hospital board
• A registered person or manager of a hospice
• Other (please state)

Questions for individuals sharing their personal or professional views

Question

What is your age? (Optional)

• Under 13
• 13 to 15
• 16 to 24
• 25 to 34
• 35 to 44
• 45 to 54
• 55 to 64
• 65 to 74
• 75 or above
• Prefer not to say

Question

What is your sex? (Optional)

• Male
• Female
• Prefer not to say

Question

Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth? (Optional)

• Yes
• No
• Prefer not to say

Question

Which area of England do you live in? (Optional)

• North East England
• North West England
• Yorkshire and the Humber
• East of England
• East Midlands
• West Midlands
• South East England
• South West England
• London
• Prefer not to say

Question

Which setting are you sharing your views or experiences about?

• Care home
• Hospital
• Hospice

If you would like to share views about more than one setting, you can do that at the end of the survey.

Experiences of visiting and accompanying before Regulation 9A came into force

The following questions seek your views and experiences of visiting and accompanying in health and care settings before Regulation 9A came into force on 6 April 2024.

Questions for individuals sharing their personal views and patient, care home resident or carer organisations

Question

Before 6 April 2024, had you experienced any restrictions to visiting or accompanying?

By restriction, we mean a situation where you were not able to visit or accompany someone, be visited or accompanied by someone, or take a visit out of a setting when you wanted.

• Yes
• No
• Not applicable

If yes, what were the restrictions you experienced (before 6 April 2024)? (Select all that apply)

• Restricted visiting hours
• Restriction on number of visitors
• Not allowed to accompany or be accompanied
• Not allowed to visit or have visitors
• Restrictions on taking visits out of the care home or restrictions on returning to the care home
• Other (please state)

What was the reason given for the restrictions? (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Questions for individuals sharing their professional views and provider organisations

Question

Before 6 April 2024, were there any restrictions imposed on visiting or accompanying in your setting?

By restriction, we mean a situation where people were not able to visit or accompany someone, be visited or accompanied by someone, or take a visit out of a setting when they wanted to.

• Yes
• No
• Not applicable

If yes, what restrictions were imposed? (Select all that apply)

• Restricted visiting hours
• Restriction on number of visitors
• Selective restriction on accompanying or being accompanied
• A stop to visiting for all
• A stop to accompanying for all
• Restrictions on visits out of the care home or restrictions on returning to the care home
• Other (please state)

What steps did you or your organisation take to assess and make the decision to impose restrictions? (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Effectiveness of Regulation 9A

The following questions seek your views and experiences of visiting and accompanying in health and care settings since Regulation 9A came into force on 6 April 2024.

Please only answer these questions using your experiences of visiting and accompanying since 6 April 2024.

Question for all respondents

Question

To what extent do you agree or disagree that Regulation 9A has been effective in ensuring that visiting and accompanying are facilitated?

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree
• Don’t know

Please explain your answer. (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Questions for individuals sharing their personal views and patient, care home resident or carer organisations

Question

Since 6 April 2024, have you experienced any restrictions to visiting or accompanying?

By restriction, we mean a situation where you were not able to visit or accompany someone, be visited or accompanied by someone, or take a visit out of a setting when you wanted.

• Yes
• No
• Not applicable

If you answered ‘no’ or ‘not applicable’, go straight to the ‘Raising concerns’ section.

If yes, what were the restrictions you experienced? (Select all that apply)

• Restricted visiting hours
• Restriction on number of visitors
• Not allowed to accompany or be accompanied
• Not allowed to visit or have visitors
• Restrictions on taking visits out of the care home or restrictions on returning to the care home
• Other (please state)

Please provide additional detail about the restrictions. (Optional)

This could include how long the restrictions were in place for and whether they applied to all patients or care home residents.

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

What was the reason given for the restrictions? (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Were you satisfied with the reason given for the decision to bring in restrictions?

• Yes
• No
• Don’t know
• Not applicable

Please explain your answer. (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Were you satisfied with how the decision to bring in restrictions was communicated?

• Yes
• No
• Not applicable

Please explain your answer. (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Did you challenge the decision or make a complaint to the provider?

By the provider, we mean the care home, hospital or hospice.

• Yes
• No

If yes, did the provider resolve the issue?

• Yes
• No

If no, did you make a complaint to the ombudsman or share information with CQC? (Select all that apply)

• Yes, shared information with CQC
• Yes, made a complaint to the ombudsman
• No

Are you still facing restrictions to visiting or accompanying?

• Yes
• No

If the provider did not resolve the issue, and if you would be comfortable doing so, please name the provider you are responding about. (Optional)

This information may be shared with NHS England. It may also be shared with CQC for information, regulatory monitoring and oversight purposes.

Questions for individuals sharing their professional views and provider organisations

Question

Since 6 April 2024, were there any restrictions imposed on visiting or accompanying in your setting?

By restriction, we mean a situation where people were not able to visit or accompany someone, be visited or accompanied by someone, or take a visit out of a setting when they wanted to.

• Yes
• No
• Not applicable

If you answered ‘no’ or ‘not applicable’, go straight to ‘In the last year, have you received any other complaints about visiting or accompanying?’

If yes, how many times, in the last year, were restrictions imposed? (Optional)

How long were the restrictions in place for? (Optional)

Please provide details for each occurrence.

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

What restrictions were imposed? (Select all that apply)

• Restricted visiting hours
• Restriction on the number of visitors
• Selective restriction on accompanying or being accompanied
• A stop to visiting for all
• A stop to accompanying for all
• Restrictions on visits out of the care home or restrictions on returning to the care home
• Other (please state)

What was the reason for the restrictions? (Optional)

Please provide details for each occurrence.

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

What steps did you take to assess and make the decision to impose restrictions? (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

How did you communicate the decision to impose restrictions? (Optional)

This could include how the decision was communicated and how the restrictions themselves were communicated to patients, visitors and staff.

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Did you receive any complaints about the restrictions?

• Yes
• No
• Don’t know

If yes, what was the complaint about? (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

If yes, was the complaint resolved?

• Yes
• No
• Don’t know
• Other

Please provide more information about any complaints and the complaints process. (Optional) 

You may want to include detail about how long the process took or whether the process was clear.

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Question

In the last year, have you received any other complaints about visiting or accompanying?

• Yes
• No
• Don’t know

If you answered ‘no’ or ‘don’t know’, go straight to ‘Raising concerns’.

If yes, what was the complaint about? (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

If yes, was the complaint resolved?

• Yes
• No
• Don’t know

If the complaint was resolved, please provide more information about how the complaint was resolved. (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Raising concerns

If an individual has any concerns about visiting or accompanying, or they believe that a health or care provider is not complying with requirements set out in Regulation 9A, they should raise their concerns with the provider and can contact CQC via its ‘give feedback on care’ online form.

Question for all respondents

Question

How effective or ineffective do you think the current complaints routes are in resolving visiting and accompanying concerns?

• Effective
• Somewhat effective
• Somewhat ineffective
• Ineffective
• Don’t know

Please explain your answer. (Optional)

If relevant, refer to specific routes for raising concerns such as provider complaints processes, CQC feedback on care or ombudsman reporting.

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Impacts of Regulation 9A

Questions for patients, care home residents and patient, care home resident or carer organisations

The next questions are about Regulation 9A and whether it has affected you in any way.

Question

How has Regulation 9A affected your relationship with the provider and its staff?

By the provider, we mean the care home, hospital or hospice.

• My relationship has improved
• My relationship has worsened
• My relationship has neither improved nor worsened
• Don’t know

Question

How has Regulation 9A affected your relationships with your visitors or carers?

• I have been able to make and keep close relationships with my visitors or carers
• I have not been able to make or keep close relationships with my visitors or carers
• No significant impact
• Don’t know

Question

How has Regulation 9A affected how informed you feel about the standard of care you are receiving?

• I feel more informed about the standard of care I am receiving
• I feel less informed about the standard of care I am receiving
• No significant impact
• Don’t know

Question

How has Regulation 9A affected how easily a visitor or carer has been able to visit or accompany you?

• It has made it easier for a visitor or carer to visit or accompany me
• It has made it harder for a visitor or carer to visit or accompany me
• No significant impact
• Don’t know

Question

How has Regulation 9A affected how a visitor or carer has been able to advocate for you?

By advocate, we mean speaking up for, supporting and representing you to make sure that your wishes and rights are respected.

• It has made it easier for a visitor or carer to advocate for me
• It has made it harder for a visitor or carer to advocate for me
• No significant impact
• Don’t know

Questions for carers and members of the public

The next questions are about Regulation 9A and whether it has affected you in any way.

Question

How has Regulation 9A affected your relationship with the provider and its staff?

By the provider, we mean the care home, hospital or hospice.

• My relationship has improved
• My relationship has worsened
• My relationship has neither improved nor worsened
• Don’t know

Question

How has Regulation 9A affected your relationships with the patients or care home residents you care for or visit?

• I have been able to make and keep close relationships
• I have not been able to make or keep close relationships
• No significant impact
• Don’t know

Question

How has Regulation 9A affected how informed you feel about the standard of care a patient or care home resident you care for or visit is receiving?

• I feel more informed about the standard of care a patient or care home resident I care for or visit is receiving
• I feel less informed about the standard of care a patient or care home resident I care for or visit is receiving
• No significant impact
• Don’t know

Question

How has Regulation 9A affected your experience of visiting or accompanying a patient or care home resident?

• I feel more confident visiting or accompanying a patient or care home resident I care for or visit
• I feel less confident visiting or accompanying a patient or care home resident I care for or visit
• No significant impact
• Don’t know

Question

How has Regulation 9A affected how you have been able to advocate for a patient or care home resident?

By advocate, we mean speaking up for, supporting and representing a patient or care home resident to make sure their wishes and rights are respected.

• I have found it easier to advocate for a patient or care home resident I care for or visit
• I have found it harder to advocate for a patient or care home resident I care for or visit
• No significant impact
• Don’t know

Questions for individuals sharing their personal views and patient, care home resident or carer organisations

Question

If there are any other ways that Regulation 9A has affected you, please set them out here. (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Question

How do you think Regulation 9A could be more effective? (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Questions for individuals sharing their professional views and provider organisations

Question

Has your setting been impacted by the introduction of Regulation 9A?

This could include additional staffing pressures, administration or infection prevention control (IPC) measures.

• Yes
• No
• Not applicable
• Don’t know

Question

How, if at all, has the introduction of Regulation 9A impacted IPC in your setting? (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Question

How, if at all, has the introduction of Regulation 9A impacted the amount of paperwork and administration in your setting?

• There is now more paperwork and administration
• There is now less paperwork and administration
• No significant impact
• Don’t know

Question

How much, if at all, has the number of visitors increased or decreased since Regulation 9A came into force? 

• Increased a lot 
• Increased a little 
• Neither increased nor decreased 
• Decreased a little 
• Decreased a lot 
• Don’t know

Question

Has your setting needed additional personal protective equipment (PPE) to facilitate visiting and accompanying since Regulation 9A came into force?

• Yes
• No
• Don’t know

If yes, please provide more information on what the additional cost of PPE has been. (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Question

How, if at all, has the introduction of Regulation 9A impacted how prepared your health or care setting is to accommodate visitors?

• My health or care setting is now better prepared to expect and accommodate visitors
• My health or care setting is now worse prepared to expect and accommodate visitors
• No significant impact
• Don’t know

Question

How, if at all, has the introduction of Regulation 9A impacted relationships with patients, care home residents, carers and visitors?

• There are fewer opportunities to build relationships with patients or care home residents and their carers and visitors
• There are more opportunities to build relationships with patients or care home residents and their carers and visitors
• No significant impact
• Don’t know

Question

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

There is a greater understanding about what health or care providers need to do during difficult situations to ensure that visiting and accompanying continue to be facilitated as long as it is safe to do so.

For example, taking actions to mitigate risks during an outbreak of an infectious disease.

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree
• Don’t know

Question

How, if at all, has the introduction of Regulation 9A impacted understanding of the importance of facilitating visiting and accompanying? (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Question

Do you think your patients or care home residents have been affected by Regulation 9A?

This may be positive or negative. The next question will ask for more detail on this.

• Yes
• No
• Don’t know

If yes, how do you think they have been affected? (Select all that apply)

• Added pressure to accept visitors who they do not want to see, or at times they do not want to see visitors
• Improvement in wellbeing as they can receive visitors and make social plans
• They have felt less lonely
• They have been more engaged with their day-to-day life
• They have been more mentally stimulated
• They have been able to build and retain stronger ties with friends and family
• Illness or unhappiness was noticed sooner with the support of visiting friends and family
• Those with communication difficulties have been more able to share their wishes or raise concerns due to support from friends and family
• Those who have difficulty advocating for themselves have been more able to share their wishes or raise concerns due to support from friends and family
• Don’t know
• Other (please state)

Question

How else has your setting been affected? (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Question

How do you think Regulation 9A could be more effective? (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 300 words)

Questions for all respondents

Question

Would you like to share views about another setting?

• Yes
• No

Question

If you have any further comments about anything that this survey has covered, please set them out here. (Optional)

Do not include information that could identify an individual or member of the public. (Maximum 500 words)

How to respond

You can respond by completing the online survey.

If you have any problems with using the online survey, email visiting@dhsc.gov.uk. Do not send your consultation answers or any personal information to this email address.

Next steps

The evidence gathered through this exercise will inform the review of Regulation 9A. DHSC’s response to the call for evidence will be published in the final report on the review of Regulation 9A.

Privacy notice

Summary of initiative or policy

DHSC is running a review of Regulation 9A: visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals and hospices to consider whether it has been effective in meeting its objective.

The government wants to ensure that health and care providers are facilitating visiting and accompanying for care home residents and patients and the people visiting them socially or to provide care and support, in line with Regulation 9A.

A care home is, and should feel like, home for care home residents, always allowing reasonable and proportionate access for visitors. Health settings should also have reasonable and proportionate access to visitors as they can play an important role in promoting the health and recovery of patients.

Data controller

DHSC is the data controller.

What personal data we collect

We will collect data on age, geographical location, sex and gender. This will help us to understand whether there are any links between these characteristics and experiences of, or opinions on, visiting. These questions will not be mandatory.

How we use your data (purposes)

The call for evidence will gather views and experiences of individuals and professionals to understand the effectiveness and impact of Regulation 9A. This will inform the wider review of Regulation 9A.

Any data processed will allow DHSC to better understand how different groups may have been affected by the change and allow us to ensure that groups are not disproportionately affected (for example, those with particular protected characteristics).

The anonymised data will be analysed, collated and aggregated by DHSC, and the summarised results and outputs published as part of the government’s review of Regulation 9A.

Legal basis for processing personal data

Under Article 6 of the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful base we rely on for processing this information is:

• (e) the processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions and the task or function has a clear basis in law

In addition, we are also processing special category data under the following condition as per Article 9 of the UK GDPR:

• g) reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law)

Data processors and other recipients of personal data

NHS England - the call for evidence seeks views from people with experience (personal or professional) of visiting and accompanying in the health sector, so it may be appropriate to share some of the responses with NHS England.

CQC - responses from this call for evidence may be shared with CQC for information, regulatory monitoring and oversight purposes.

This consultation is hosted via an online platform owned by SocialOptic, who are a contracted supplier of DHSC. SocialOptic will delete any personal data in line with the retention and disposal periods outlined in this privacy notice, or earlier if instructed to do so by DHSC.

DHSC will use AWS Bedrock (AI) to support analysis of responses to this consultation. AWS Bedrock does not retain any data, inputs or outputs as data is deleted once the interaction with the AI session is finished. AWS state they do not use user data to train any models.

International data transfers and storage locations

Information will only be kept within the UK.

Storage of data by SocialOptic is provided via secure servers located in the UK.

Processing of data by AWS Bedrock is done in the UK.

Retention and disposal policy

Responses will be anonymised, and we will retain the data for no longer than 3 years.

How we keep your data secure

DHSC uses appropriate technical, organisational and administrative security measures to protect any information we hold in our records from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. We have written procedures and policies which are regularly audited and reviewed at a senior level.

Your rights as a data subject

By law, data subjects have a number of rights and this processing does not take away or reduce these rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 applies.

These rights are:

• the right to get copies of information - individuals have the right to ask for a copy of any information about them that is used
• the right to get information corrected - individuals have the right to ask for any information held about them that they think is inaccurate to be corrected
• the right to limit how the information is used - individuals have the right to ask for any of the information held about them to be restricted - for example, if they think inaccurate information is being used
• the right to object to the information being used - individuals can ask for any information held about them to not be used. However, this is not an absolute right, and continued use of the information may be necessary, with individuals being advised if this is the case
• the right to get information deleted - this is not an absolute right, and continued use of the information may be necessary, with individuals being advised if this is the case

Comments or complaints

Anyone unhappy or wishing to complain about how personal data is used as part of this programme should contact data_protection@dhsc.gov.uk in the first instance or write to:

Data Protection Officer
1st Floor North
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0EU

Anyone who is still not satisfied can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Their postal address is:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Automated decision making or profiling

DHSC will be using AI to support analysis and summary of responses to this call for evidence.

Free-text data will be analysed using topic modelling techniques. Analysis will be performed by DHSC, and all data will be stored and processed on the DHSC estate.

The analysis will use Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) for topic modelling. This is a natural language processing technique that probabilistically groups responses into arbitrary ‘topics’ based on the words they contain. The ‘topics’ extracted by the model will then by manually processed to deduce what they represent, with similar ‘topics’ being grouped together and meaningless ‘topics’ discarded. 

For the purposes of any publication, responses will be aggregated and statistical disclosure controls applied. Any comments that are quoted to highlight important themes in the data will be anonymised to safeguard against individuals being identified.

There will be human oversight throughout the analysis process and all responses will be manually reviewed to ensure accuracy. No decision will be made solely based on automated decision making (where a decision is taken using an electronic system without human involvement).

Respondents are reminded throughout the survey not to include any information which may identify them or another member of the public.

The final report on the review of Regulation 9A will be written by humans, not AI.

Changes to this policy

This privacy notice is kept under regular review, and new versions will be available on this call for evidence page. This privacy notice was last updated on 28 May 2025.