Transparency data

Minutes of the National Data Guardian Panel Meeting, 20 January 2026

Published 13 October 2026

Applies to England

Attendees

Panel members

• Dr Nicola Byrne (chair)
• John Carvel
• Dr Fiona Head
• Dr Jeffry Hogg
• Mr Adrian Marchbank
• Maisie McKenzie
• Dr Jess Morley
• Professor Daniel Ray
• David Sharp
• Rob Shaw
• Jenny Westaway
• Professor James Wilson

Office of the National Data Guardian team

• Nishat Ahmed
• Dr Vicky Chico
• Mathew Fry
• Layla Heyes
• Nisha Karadia
• Karen Swift

1. Welcome, apologies, and declarations of interest

National Data Guardian (NDG), Dr Nicola Byrne, chaired the meeting.

• Apologies were received from Dr Natalie Banner, Claire Delaney-Pope and Dr George Fernie.

• The panel was pleased to formally welcome Nishat Ahmed, who had recently joined the Office of the National Data Guardian as a Senior Project Manager.

2. Minutes from previous meeting, actions, and decisions

Panel members accepted the minutes from its 18 November 2025 meeting.

All actions were agreed as having been completed prior to this meeting.

3. Key updates

Mathew Fry led the key updates, summarising key Office of the National Data Guardian (ONDG) activities since the last panel.

NDG Strategic Priorities

The NDG Annual Report was published on 17 December and outlines our priorities for 2026–27.

Large-Scale Public Engagement

As noted in the recent update previously provided by panel member Jenny Westaway, the next stage of the DHSC and NHS England public engagement programme on linking health and non-health data takes place this month. The programme will work with members of the public to further refine findings in two key areas: public benefit criteria and use of data for enforcement purposes. The NDG continues to chair the expert steering group, with Jenny Westaway a group member.

Information Governance Working Group

The NHSE IG portal continues to produce guidance driven by system needs. Information Governance guidance on texting, emailing, and messaging patients about individual care was published in January 2026. Dr Vicky Chico (ONDG) continues to sit on the working group

Understanding Patient Data (UPD)

Understanding Patient Data (UPD) is scoping out user demand for what they are calling the Health Data Compass: an online, national hub for insights into evidence on public attitudes on health data use. Office staff (ONDG) continue to sit on the UPD Strategic Advisory Group.

Reasonable Expectations

The Reasonable Expectations report has been positively received, with broader communications and dissemination planned in the coming weeks. Follow‑up work is progressing in two key areas:

• Screening Quality Assurance (SQAS), NDG is working with NHS England to clarify which elements of quality assurance work constitute direct care, though this is complex due to overlap with national clinical audit activity, and the team is awaiting further detail before finalising scope
• Population Health Management (PHM), NHS England and UPD are exploring how to refine and test the documentation to ensure strong public reach and understanding, with significant interest already shown across PHM teams.

More broadly, there is increasing sector appetite to build on existing work which explores the concept of a reasonable expectation of privacy as the threshold for determining whether there is a breach of confidence. Further strategic work would be required to embed the principle in guidance as a way of gradually shaping practice.

4. Definition of the concept of ‘care pathway’ to clarify the boundaries of implied consent

Dr Vicky Chico, Senior Privacy Specialist at the Office of the National Data Guardian, introduced a discussion on recurring queries about who can be considered part of the “care team” for the purposes of implied consent to access confidential patient information for direct care in line with the Information Governance Review (IGR). She noted that organisations often sought role‑specific yes/no judgments, but interpretations were inconsistent: sometimes overly narrow, overly broad, or based on outdated understandings of how care is delivered. Recent work with the Health Research Authority and queries relating to roles such as chaplains, technical staff, and analysts further illustrated the limitations of the existing “care team” concept.

Dr Chico proposed reframing the model around a patient’s care pathway, emphasising that access to information should depend on a legitimate relationship with the patient or service user, time‑limited access, and a clear, purpose‑based need. This approach better reflects modern, multi‑organisational care and offers clearer distinctions between appropriate and inappropriate access.

The panel discussed the importance of avoiding both overly broad and overly narrow definitions, supporting reasonable patient expectations, and ensuring that any new framing remained simple and practical. Panel members agreed that access should be determined by an individual’s role within the patient’s care pathway rather than assumed “team” membership. They supported further development of this approach to inform future NDG advice and national information governance guidance, including its relevance for initiatives such as local shared care records and the Single Patient Record.

5. Single Patient Record (SPR) update  

Senior representatives from NHS England updated the NDG Panel on early work to develop the Single Patient Record.

The panel welcomed the update and highlighted key considerations for the programme’s development. Panel members appreciated the fact that the architecture of the Single Patient Record system has not yet been determined. They discussed the need for strong engagement with frontline staff, careful design to ensure information is manageable and relevant to the health and care staff role in care provision, as their inclination to use it is crucial to its success. Panel urged the team to prioritise the design of a system with robust safeguards to protect patient confidentiality and maintain public trust, including the availability of a patient and service user facing audit function. Panel members were circumspect about considerations shared concerning the SPR potentially providing access to data for purposes outside of the provision of care. They advised significant caution was required in relation to any such use given it would potentially raise issues around public and professional trust and use outside of direct care was not tested in the public engagement conducted to shape this programme.

Panel members also recommend that the programme prioritises extensive and ongoing engagement with health and care professionals to ensure any solution improves on existing cross-organisational tools they already have access to, such as local shared care records, the Summary Care Record with Additional Information, and GP Connect.

NHS England acknowledged these points and expressed a commitment to ongoing engagement with the NDG Panel as the programme progresses.

6. Any other business

No further points were raised.