The General Practice Data for Planning and Research system was set up by the British National Health Service as a replacement for the General Practice Extraction Service as a means of transmitting data intended for use beyond that of providing individual health care.
[4][5] The Pulse magazine - distributed to general practitioners in the UK, carried articles reflecting concern about the scope of the data being collected[6] and the additional workload and legal risks it would impose on GPs[7] Responsibility for informing patients was devolved to GP Practices, for example by updating the Privacy Notice on their website.
[10] The Type 1 Opt Out was implemented by the patient filling out a downloadable paper form and returning it to their GP, The process of making GP data available to NHS Digital for wider use was due to begin on 1 July 2021, but was delayed until 1 September[11] It has now been delayed until four criteria have been met[12] From the GP Data for Planning and Research: Letter from Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to general practices in England - 19 July 2021[13] The Government has committed that access to GP data will only be via a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) and never copied or shipped outside the NHS secure environment, except where individuals have consented to their data being accessed e.g. written consent for a research study.
This is intended to give both GPs and patients a very high degree of confidence that their data will be safe and their privacy protected.
The TRE will be built in line with best practice developed in projects, such as OpenSAFELY and the Office for National Statistics’ Secure Research Service.