National Data Opt-Out

The deadline for health and care organisations in England to comply with the National Data Opt-Out (NDO) is 31st July 2022. This was postponed a number of times by NHS England and NHS Digital due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are pleased to announce that the NVR has obtained an exemption from the NDO as the Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG) feels that there is an overriding public interest in the NVR using patient data to report on how vascular health care is delivered to patients and the outcomes of vascular procedures. The National Data Opt-Out applies to patients whose personal data is collected without consent (under Section 251). It does not apply to patients who have given their consent for their personal identifiable data to be collected and processed by the NVR (as explicit consent ‘trumps’ any registered opt-out). The NVR’s CAG application reference number is CAG 5-07(f)/2013.

Therefore NHS trusts do not need to implement an IT solution to screen NHS numbers before inputting them into the NVR.

We would encourage NHS trusts to seek the consent of every patient undergoing an elective procedure so that their patient identifiable information can be entered onto the NVR. This enables us to link to external data sources such as HES, the ONS death register and other important national clinical datasets (including other national clinical audits).

We also encourage NHS trusts to display the NVR’s patient information leaflet in wards and clinic areas in the hospital so that patients can easily find out more about the NVR and how their data is used.