The Department of Health and Social Care has today issued the GPES Data for Consented Research Directions 2026 – a legal directive that will shortly allow long-standing clinical studies to include secure access to GP records for their participants. These are participants in UK Biobank, Our Future Health and Genomics England who have already consented to share their data for research.
This follows the welcome progress earlier on OpenSAFELY and builds on well established models for secure data analysis in approved studies with the potential to improve lives. This matters because GP records capture the earliest signals of disease, long before many people reach hospital. Your GP tracks the small changes in blood pressure, repeat prescriptions, routine tests and the first notes of concern. Until now researchers have often only been able to access the final chapter recorded in hospital files.
In response, Professor Andrew Morris, Director of Health Data Research UK, said:
“Access to consented participant GP data is a genuine game-changer for UK science – and above all, for patients. For too long, researchers have only seen the final chapter of a patient’s illness through hospital records. Primary care data provide the critical beginning and middle of the story – how diseases start, how they’re managed in the community and how people respond to treatment.
“Crucially, these are data people have chosen to share, and they will only be within secure, tightly governed research environments with independent oversight. Securely linking this missing piece of the puzzle provides researchers the comprehensive picture needed to spot disease earlier, speed up discovery and deliver safer care.”
