National Postmortem Toxicology Database: privacy notice
Information about the personal data we collect for the National Postmortem Toxicology Database from coroners' postmortem toxicology tests.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about people who have died and have also had the presence of psychoactive drugs confirmed by a postmortem toxicological test commissioned by a coroner. It may be of interest to people at risk of drug-related death or the families of people who have died.
This data is being collected for the National Postmortem Toxicology Database which is managed by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), part of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
Laboratories that conduct postmortem toxicology analysis can send the results of individual toxicology analyses to OHID if psychoactive drugs were found to be present. They can do this where coroners have given them permission to do so. OHID then collects these results into the National Postmortem Toxicology Database and analyses them to monitor and report on drug-related deaths trends.
The privacy notice includes details on:
- what we do with your information
- how we protect your information and keep it secure
- how to contact us or make a complaint
The information we collect from relevant toxicological tests will help us to:
- identify and respond to dangerous drug incidents
- monitor trends in drug misuse deaths
- improve the reporting of drug misuse deaths
Updates to this page
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Updated the time that fully identifiable personal data will be held before being pseudonymised, from a maximum of 6 months to a maximum of 12 months.
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First published.