Health Data Research UK responds to Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s announcement on sharing consented GP data for research

This morning, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting delivered a keynote
speech at the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Annual Conference where he revealed
plans to improve the sharing of primary care health data for scientific research.

Historically, large cohort studies such as UK Biobank – where participants have given explicit consent for researchers to access their GP health records – have struggled to gain large-scale access to primary care data. In his speech, Wes Streeting announced that he is directing NHS England to ensure consented data is shared for research, removing the burden of responsibility from GPs.

In response, Professor Andrew Morris, Director of HDR UK, said:

“These are sensible steps which Wes Streeting has announced, enabling the trustworthy use of health data held by GPs where we know there is support. It has the potential to guide better
treatments and improve lives.

“Hundreds of thousands of volunteers have signed up to large clinical studies in the UK, many of
them agreeing to share their health records so that more can be learned about major diseases and their treatments. They can be surprised to find out it’s often difficult for those studies to access their GP data, even with this consent.

“Starting a process to direct the sharing of this data with clinical studies that meet appropriate consent and data security processes is welcome, while taking away the burden from hard-pressed GPs who rightly take this responsibility very seriously. It will bring this anomaly to a close and fulfil the wishes of the volunteers.

“Eleven months ago, and with the support of the BMA and Royal College of GPs, it was announced
that NHS England would expand the use of the OpenSAFELY platform to enable research beyond
COVID-19 and include many other major diseases. The platform is designed to keep GP data
confidential and secure. During the pandemic we saw the value of this research in understanding the new coronavirus, and we can expect new insights into the treatment of many other diseases such as cancer, diabetes and asthma. We do now need to accelerate progress and make good on this promise from nearly a year ago, making sure NHS England has the resource and capacity to do this.”