Please provide all communications between the ICO & UK Government Departments - COVID19
Dear Information Commissioner's Office,
On the 20th March a memo sent from the Department for Health & Social Care to Local Authorities, General Practitioners, Organisations providing Health Related Services and arms length bodies of the department for health and social care clearly states the following:
"Action to be taken will require the processing and sharing of confidential patient information amongst health organisations and other bodies engaged in disease surveillance for the purposes of research, protecting public health, providing healthcare services to the public and monitoring and managing the Covid-19 outbreak and incidents of exposure."
But then states "2.2.Organisations are only required to process such confidential patient information: 2.2.1. where the confidential patient information to be processed is required for
a Covid-19 Purpose and will be processed solely for that Covid-19 Purpose in accordance with Regulation 7 of COPI;"
Then states a Covid19 Purpose: "3. Covid-19 Purpose.
3.1 A Covid-19 Purpose includes but is not limited to the following"
and then "understanding information about patient access to health services and
adult social care services and the need for wider care of patients and
vulnerable groups as a direct or indirect result of Covid-19 and the
availability and capacity of those services or that care; "
The information I would like to request is the following:
1. Was the ICO consulted on this process before it was implemented?
2. Provide all communications/Advice and Guidance in relation to Data Protection & GDPR provided to the UK government (Department for Health & Social Care) in relation to 'Confidential Medical Records' and their use for Covid19 and non related purposes during the Covid19 pandemic.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Carroll-Owen
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5 May 2020
Case Reference: IC-38265-P6C0
Dear Mike Carroll-Owen
Please find attached our formal response to your information request of 14
April 2020.
Yours sincerely,
Frederick Aspbury
Senior Information Access Officer
Information Commissioner's Office
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
T. 0330 414 6397 [1]ico.org.uk [2]twitter.com/iconews
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