Health and Social Care (National Data Guardian) Act 2018 to come into force
28th March, 2019
The Health and Social Care (National Data Guardian) Act 2018 (the "Act") comes into effect on 1 April 2019. Its purpose is to promote the provision of advice and guidance on the processing of health and adult social care data in England.
Click here to view the Act.
The Act establishes the position of a National Data Guardian for Health and Social Care whose duty it is to publish guidance about the processing of health and adult social care data in England, as well as keeping under review any previously published guidance.
The Act has a number of notable implications for NHS organisations, as well as the private organisations who contract with the NHS, such as imposing a duty on them to have regard to any Guidance published by the National Data Guardian.
The National Data Guardian will also be able to provide informal advice, assistance and information about the processing of health and adult social care data in England. However, unlike the National Data Guardian’s published guidance, there is no statutory duty to have regard to this informal advice, assistance or information.
If you have any queries in relation to the Act, or queries in relation to our Public Sector services more generally, please click here.
Please note that this briefing is designed to be informative, not advisory and represents our understanding of English law and practice as at the date indicated. We would always recommend that you should seek specific guidance on any particular legal issue.
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