The Patient Information Advisory Group (PIAG) was established in the United Kingdom under section 61[1] of the Health and Social Care Act 2001[2] and the Patient Information Advisory Group (Establishment) Regulations 2001[3] to provide advice on issues of national significance involving the use of patient information and to oversee arrangements created under section 60[4] of the Act.
Its membership was drawn from patient groups, health care professionals and regulatory bodies.
The terms of reference for the PIAG were to: Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2001 (subsequently Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006) provided a power to ensure that patient identifiable information needed to support essential NHS activity could be used without the consent of patients.
The power could only be used to support medical purposes that were in the interests of patients or the wider public, where consent was not a practicable alternative and where anonymised information would not suffice.
It was intended largely as a transitional measure whilst consent or anonymisation procedures were developed, and this was reinforced by the need to review each use of the power annually.