About us
The National Data Guardian advises the health and adult social care system in England to help ensure that people's confidential information is kept safe and used properly.
The role of the National Data Guardian
Dr Nicola Byrne is the current National Data Guardian.
The National Data Guardian (NDG) role was created in November 2014 to be an independent champion for patients and the public when it comes to matters of their confidential health and care information.
The role of the National Data Guardian
Vision
The NDG’s vision is for improved health and care outcomes through the safe, appropriate, and ethical use of people’s health and social care information.
Mission
The NDG’s mission is to help preserve trust in the confidentiality of our health and social care services.
If people are to support the collection and use of their health and care data, they need to be confident that information about their care will remain private and only be used in ways which benefit the public.
To support the development and maintenance of trustworthy systems and practices, the NDG provides advice, encouragement, and challenge to the health and social care system on the safe, appropriate, and ethical use of people’s confidential health and care information.
Objectives
Four long-term strategic objectives support the NDG’s mission:
- Safeguard trust in the confidentiality of our health and social care system
- Encourage safe and appropriate information sharing for individual care
- Support understanding and engagement about how and why data is used
- Encourage the safe, appropriate, and ethical use of data in system planning, research and innovation that benefits the public.
NDG powers
The Health and Social Care (National Data Guardian) Act 2018 places the NDG role on a statutory footing and grants it the power to issue official guidance about the processing of health and adult social care data in England. However, the NDG may also provide more informal advice, too.
Public bodies such as hospitals, GPs, care homes, planners and commissioners of services have to take note of guidance that is relevant to them. As do organisations such as private companies or charities that deliver services for the NHS or publicly funded adult social care.
The NDG is not a regulator and does not have investigatory or enforcement powers. But they work with regulators such as the Information Commissioner’s Office wherever there is a need to do so.
Who we are
Although sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care, the NDG operates independently, representing the interests of patients, social care service users, and the public.
The NDG is supported by a small team of staff (Office of the National Data Guardian) and an independent group of expert advisors (NDG Panel).
NDG Panel
Present NDG Panel members:
- Dr Natalie Banner (direct of ethics at Genomics England)
- John Carvel (freelance writer, formerly social affairs editor of The Guardian)
- Dr Arjun Dhillon (GP, clinical director and Caldicott Guardian at NHS Digital, UKCGC chair)
- Dr Edward Dove (lecturer in health law and regulation at the Law School, University of Edinburgh)
- Dame Moira Gibb (formerly chief executive of Camden Council and chair of National Statistician’s Data Ethics Committee)
- Dr Fiona Head (GP, public health consultant and chief medical officer at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICS)
- Mr Adrian Marchbank (consultant cardiothoracic surgeon, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust)
- Maisie McKenzie (patient and public involvement representative)
- Rob Shaw (managing director at Mercury Technology Ltd; former deputy chief executive of NHS Digital)
- Jenny Westaway (an independent member of NHS England’s interim data advisory group, lay advisor to Health Education England, and associate of a commercial cyber security resilience consultancy)
- Professor James Wilson (professor in the Department of Philosophy at University College London)
Find out more:
The panel meets 6 times a year.
We publish our minutes online.
The Caldicott Principles
The National Data Guardian owns and maintains the Caldicott Principles.
The principles are a set of eight good practice guidelines applied widely across the field of health and social care information governance to ensure that people’s data is kept safe and used appropriately.
Caldicott Guardians support the upholding of these principles at an organisational level.
UK Caldicott Guardian Council
The UK Caldicott Guardian Council (UKCGC) is the national body for Caldicott Guardians and is sponsored by the National Data Guardian.
Caldicott Guardians are responsible for protecting the confidentiality of people’s health and care information and ensuring it is appropriately used within their organisations.
All NHS organisations, local authorities that provide social services, and private or third-sector organisations that deliver publicly funded care must have a Caldicott Guardian.