The London Secure Data Environment (SDE) provides an infrastructure in which data from health and care organisations across London can be ingested, cleaned, curated and accessed by approved users (either as patient identifiable or pseudonymised) to be used for approved applications/projects with the following purposes:

The London Data Service is part of the London SDE. It securely extracts, transforms and stores data from various health and care organisations across London for approved uses. This data can be directed to applications like the London Care Record or, within the London SDE, the London Analytics Platform. North EastLondon Integrated Care Board is developing the London Data Service on behalf of all of London’s Integrated Care Systems to cover the whole of London’s population.

Alongside the London Data Service, the London Analytics Platform is part of the London SDE. The London Analytics Platform receives identifiable data from the London Data Service and uses this to provide tools for clinical teams to provide direct care to you and other patients, to support the provision of proactive health and care (population health management), to support the commissioning, the assessment and improvement of health and care services, as well as enable research projects.

Your data is ingested into the London Data Service in identifiable form. In the London Analytics Platform, identifiable data is only used to provide direct care to you. The data is pseudonymised for any other purpose, including research. This means youcannot be identified by the approved users accessing the information.

Secure Data Environments are a more effective and more secure way for approved users to access information, which include:

Secure Data Environments such as the London SDE enable many different sources of data to be linked, so prepared data can be more easily accessed if needed again. This means that researchers and analysts can access bigger sets of data faster. This will speed up how quickly the NHS can make decisions for your wellbeing and for the discovery of new treatments.

The London SDE is part of NHS England’s national plan to create a network of regional Secure Data Environments to accelerate research projects by providing secure access to NHS data, which you can read more about here.

The London SDE collects your data from different NHS providers in London, including acute hospitals, mental health and community care services, primary careservices, adult and children’s social care services and local authorities.

Yes, data will be accessible within the London SDE for a variety of purposes, including research purposes. For example, academic researchers may request access to the London SDE to conduct research projects focused on developing new treatments or medicines.

Only approved research applications will be granted access to the London SDE.Applications are first reviewed by a pan-London group called Independent Information Access Group (IIAG), with clinical and public representatives from each of London’s Integrated Care Systems (ICS). The IIAG issues a recommendation tothe Data Access Committee within the relevant ICS, which then decides if an application is approved or not. Each ICS-level Data Access Committee represents adifferent area of London and includes representatives of health and care organisations and patient representatives. For approved applications, only pseudonymised data will be made accessible for research, meaning researchers cannot identify you or other patients from the data.

Where the data in the London SDE is used by health and care professionals to provide direct care, this means you do not have to repeat your medical history to different people or to remember specific details about your medications and treatments each time you see a new health or care professional. It also helps to ensure that health and care staff who are treating you have the information they need at the point of care to inform their decision making. This helps to support safe, effect and joined-up care.

For commissioning, planning and research, only pseudonymised data is used, which means users with approved access will not be able to identify you from the data. The use of pseudonymised data for commissioning and planning has the benefit of helping local authorities and NHS organisations to better understand the health of the London population and their needs, improving the delivery of health and care services as a result. For research, having pseudonymised data available in a single environment makes projects more efficient and less time consuming, which accelerates the rate of development of new treatments and new discoveries.

Yes. If you do not want your data to be used for the purposes of the London SDE, you can opt out. Opting out means that you inform us that you do not want your personal data to be in the London SDE and we will take measures to ensure that your personal information is not used.

If you do not want your data to be pseudonymised and used for research, planning and improving health and care services, you can contact us directly via email, post or phone. You can also use NHS England’s National Data Opt-Out service.

If you do not want your data to be used for individual health and care services provided to you, you have a Right to Object. It should be noted that exercising this right is likely to have an impact on the information available to NHS services and the health and care professionals providing services to you, so it should be considered carefully.

For more information about the different ways to opt out, object, our contact details and other rights you may wish to exercise, please refer to the following page.

Data processed and stored for the purposes of the London SDE will be protected by a combination of robust technical and organisational measures, in line with the “Six Safes Framework”. This is an upgrade of the “Five Safes Framework” developed by the Office of National Statistics, which are the following:

Yes. The two components of the London SDE, namely the London Data Service and the London Analytics Platform, are hosted entirely within the United Kingdom and no data is transferred to any other country. The data processed for the purpose of the London SDE will be processed by the North East London Integrated Care Board and the North West London Integrated Care Board, as the respective organisationshosting the infrastructures. In doing so, they utilise Microsoft Azure and Snowflake for cloud data storage and warehousing services, which are both based in the United Kingdom.

For more information about how your data is processed by these parties, please refer to the privacy notices of the London Data Service and the London Analytics Platform published here.