NHS Digital Data Release Register - reformatted

Ministry Of Defence (mod) projects

170 data files in total were disseminated unsafely (information about files used safely is missing for TRE/"system access" projects).

🚩 Ministry Of Defence (mod) was sent multiple files from the same dataset, in the same month, both with optouts respected and with optouts ignored. Ministry Of Defence (mod) may not have compared the two files, but the identifiers are consistent between datasets, and outside of a good TRE NHS Digital can not know what recipients actually do.

MR828 - CAUSE OF DEATH CODING: A VALIDATION EXERCISE — DARS-NIC-148399-BJ7GR

Type of data: information not disclosed for TRE projects

Opt outs honoured: Identifiable (Section 251 NHS Act 2006)

Legal basis: Health and Social Care Act 2012 – s261(7)

Purposes: No (Ministerial Department)

Sensitive: Sensitive

When:DSA runs 2018-10-01 — 2021-01-27

Access method: Ongoing

Data-controller type: MINISTRY OF DEFENCE (MOD)

Sublicensing allowed: No

Datasets:

  1. MRIS - Cause of Death Report

Objectives:

This Data Sharing Agreement permits the retention of the data for an interim period but no other processing of the data is permitted.

Permission to retain the data for the interim period is a practical step to enable the study to comply with the necessary legal and ethical requirements.

The following information provides background information on the purpose of the original study. No new data will be released under this version of the agreement, and this agreement allows the applicant to hold and not otherwise process any further data that has already been disseminated.

The following information provides background on the aim and purpose of the original study. No new data will be disseminated under v1 of this agreement.

BACKGROUND
The data supplied by the NHS IC to DASA (Health Information) Ministry of Defence (MOD) will be used only for the approved Medical Research Project MR828.

DASA (Defence and Security Accelerator, part of MoD) obtain information on all deaths occurring among in-service UK Armed Forces personnel. These data are coded by clinically accredited coders using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), since April 1995, ICD-10 has been used. In order to calculate standardised mortality ratios (using data from England and Wales as standard), it is essential to ensure that the coding procedures are similar between DASA and the ONS, for example, that there is no evidence of numerator-denominator bias.

Furthermore, there are concerns that the rate of suicide among the Armed Forces is greater than expected, based on national population rates, this is a particularly sensitive issue and it is imperative that DASA accurately identify suicides and related deaths.

NHS Digital data was requested to maintain death records.

GDPR Legal Basis for Processing: Article 6 (1)(E) and Article 9 (2)(J)
Legal Basis for Dissemination: Health and Social Care Act s261 (7)
Common Law Duty of Confidentiality: The study has Class Action support under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2001 (as re-enacted by Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006). ECC 2-04 (c)/2010.

MoD are the sole data controller and sole data processor.

Yielded Benefits:

Expected Benefits:

Enable MoD to accurately identify suicides and related deaths. NHS Digital data enables accurate death records to be maintained.

Outputs:

This Data Sharing Agreement permits the retention of the data for an interim period but no other processing of the data is permitted.

Permission to retain the data for the interim period is a practical step to enable the study to comply with the necessary legal and ethical requirements.

No further outputs of the data are permitted to be created under this version of the agreement.

Processing:

All organisations party to this agreement must comply with the Data Sharing Framework Contract requirements, including those regarding the use (and purposes of that use) by “Personnel” (as defined within the Data Sharing Framework Contract ie: employees, agents and contractors of the Data Recipient who may have access to that data).

This Data Sharing Agreement permits the retention of the data for an interim period but no other processing of the data is permitted.

Permission to retain the data for the interim period is a practical step to enable the study to comply with the necessary legal and ethical requirements.

No new or further data will be provided under v1 of the agreement. A short term extension is in place as a pragmatic approach to enable legal retention of already disseminated data. This agreement allows retention of data, but not permission to otherwise process it.

Below is information provided by MoD on background to the study for details of previous disseminations, and also an insight into what is anticipated will happen once access to new data flows and permission to process data is granted in the future. As stated above - this version of the agreement permits retention of data only - permission is not granted to otherwise process the data at this stage until relevant documentation can be provided.

The data request is part of a validation exercise by MOD to confirm cause of death for UK armed forces, part of production of National Statistic on Deaths to UK Armed Force.

The following data is held and will not be processed under version 1 of this agreement:
• MRIS – Cause of Death Report
• MRIS – Cohort Event Notification Report
• MRIS – Flagging Current Status Report
• MRIS – Members and Postings Report
• MRIS – Personal Demographics Service
• MRIS – Scottish NHS / Registration

This is not research and is produced annually to meet Government holding to account agenda.

A data destruction certificate cannot be produced for data listed above because that would mean removal of required data, therefore, the data held under this agreement will be covered under a new MoD application.

Data will only be accessed by substantive employees of MoD and will not be accessed by any other third parties not mentioned in this agreement.

There will be no attempts made by MoD to re-identify individuals involved in this project as there is no requirement to do so.

MR1270 - A study of deaths (including suicides) in the UK Armed Forces who deployed to the Falklands campaign — DARS-NIC-148468-KFJZ5

Type of data: information not disclosed for TRE projects

Opt outs honoured: Y, N, Identifiable (Section 251 NHS Act 2006)

Legal basis: Section 251 approval is in place for the flow of identifiable data, , Health and Social Care Act 2012 – s261(7); National Health Service Act 2006 - s251 - 'Control of patient information'.

Purposes: No (Ministerial Department)

Sensitive: Non Sensitive, and Sensitive

When:DSA runs 2020-01-01 — 2020-06-01 2016.04 — 2017.02.

Access method: Ongoing, One-Off

Data-controller type: MINISTRY OF DEFENCE (MOD)

Sublicensing allowed: No

Datasets:

  1. MRIS - Cohort Event Notification Report
  2. MRIS - Cause of Death Report
  3. MRIS - Scottish NHS / Registration
  4. MRIS - Bespoke
  5. MRIS - Flagging Current Status Report
  6. MRIS - Members and Postings Report

Objectives:

This study will enable the MOD to address claims made in the press and by charitable organisations that the UK Armed Forces personnel who deployed to the Falklands are experiencing a higher rate of suicide. The primary aim is to ascertain the actual number of suicides (and other causes of death) amongst the Falklands cohort, calculate rates of suicide and other causes of death, and compare these rates to those found for comparable groups in the Armed Forces and UK general population. If an excess of suicide, or any other cause of death, is identified, then this will trigger further targeted studies with the aim of influencing policy to improve support and services to veterans of this conflict. It will also be relevant to veterans of other more recent deployments (e.g. Iraq or current operations in Afghanistan), amongst whom any such effect may not yet be apparent. Likewise it may suggest trends amongst veterans who served on operations at a similar time but about whom data is less readily available (e.g. Northern Ireland).

Yielded Benefits:

The previous data sharing agreement and subsequent provision of data enabled analysis on the causes of death amongst the cohort, followed by the production of two Official Statistics. In doing so the MOD was able to defend its position and dispel the myth with regards to suicide rates of Falklands veterans. The last publication in 2014 reported: The risk of dying was lower or the same as the UK general population for all causes of death and for each year, with the exception of 1989 when there was an excess of transport accident deaths amongst Falkland veterans compared to the UK population. The processing has also enabled active surveillance of the cohort.

Expected Benefits:

This Data Sharing Agreement permits the retention of the data for an interim period but no other processing of the data is permitted.

Permission to retain the data for the interim period is a practical step to enable the study to comply with the necessary legal and ethical requirements. If, for any reason, it is not possible for the study to meet the necessary requirements, this Agreement will be terminated, and destruction of the data will be required

In any future application, the applicant will be required to provide details of the expected benefits resulting from the study.

The following information provides background information on the expected measurable benefits of the original study and subsequent data sharing agreement with the then HSCIC.

The number of suicides and other causes of death recorded amongst veterans of the Falklands conflict will be compared with the number that would be expected amongst a cohort of the same size, with similar age structure, in the general population. Mortality rates will also be compared with those observed in other conflict cohorts.

If an excess of suicides (or more generally any other cause of death) is identified in the Falklands cohort, then this may trigger further targeted research. The aim of these studies will be to influence policy to improve support and services to veterans of this conflict. It will also be relevant to veterans of other more recent deployments (e.g. the Gulf I conflict, or operations in Iraq and Afghanistan).

Outputs:

No new outputs will be produced under this Data Sharing Agreement.

This Data Sharing Agreement permits the retention of the data for an interim period but no other processing of the data is permitted.

Permission to retain the data for the interim period is a practical step to enable the study to comply with the necessary legal and ethical requirements. If, for any reason, it is not possible for the study to meet the necessary requirements, this Agreement will be terminated, and destruction of the data will be required

In any future application, the applicant will be required to provide details of the outputs that were produced and disseminated by the study as well as details of any future outputs planned.

The following information provides background information on the expected output activities of the original study and subsequent data sharing agreement with the then HSCIC.

An Official Statistic will be published within 6 months of the MOD receiving data updates on the cohort. Data will continue to be analysed annually to monitor the cause of deaths within the cohort, however scheduled releases will be every 5 years. Published statistics will continue to align with information previously released within the Official Statistic on the gov.uk website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/causes-of-deaths-among-the-uk-armed-forces-veterans-of-the-1982-falklands-campaign

Processing:

NHS Digital reminds all organisations party to this agreement of the need to comply with the Data Sharing Framework Contract requirements, including those regarding the use (and purposes of that use) by “Personnel” (as defined within the Data Sharing Framework Contract i.e.: employees, agents and contractors of the Data Recipient who may have access to that data).

Mortality data was supplied to the Ministry of Defence by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (which has since become NHS Digital) for the purpose of a research study - A study of deaths (including suicides) in the UK Armed Forces who deployed to the Falklands campaign.

This Data Sharing Agreement permits the retention of the data for an interim period but no other processing of the data is permitted.

Permission to retain the data for the interim period is a practical step to enable the study to comply with the necessary legal and ethical requirements. If, for any reason, it is not possible for the study to meet the necessary requirements, this Agreement will be terminated, and destruction of the data will be required.

The following information provides background information on the processing activities of the original study and subsequent data sharing agreement with the then HSCIC.
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MOD supplies individual level data to NHS to have the cohort flagged, fields provided are: Study ID, Surname, Forename, Middle Name, Date of Birth, and Sex. As this sensitive personal data is to be used for statistics the MOD processes it under Part 2 Chapter 2 Section 10(e) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

NHS Digital matches the supplied cohort and sends the MOD the following: England and Wales event notifications and cancer registrations, England and Wales death certificates, Scotland members and postings, Scotland death certificates, and Scotland cancer registrations including individual level data. Previously The MOD have been advised that the Scottish members and postings data was included within the England and Wales event notifications and cancer registrations file. However, the MOD are aware this may no longer be how the data is provided.

MOD have Section 251 support in place for this data to flow to NHS Digital so that mortality data can be returned.

MOD conduct statistical analysis on the causes of death for the cohort compared to the UK general population, and publish findings in an Official Statistic. Statistical Disclosure Control will be used to protect the confidentiality of participants.

The data will be linked to MOD held demographic and Service history data using the psuedoanonymised Study ID.

There will be no requirement/attempt to re-identify individuals.

The data processing will only be carried out by employees within Defence Statistics who are substantive employees of the data processor and data controller. All employees will have approved researcher status and be appropriately trained in data protection and confidentiality.
Data will be stored on an internal secure environment (NEMESIS).

NEMESIS has full accreditation from Defence Assurance and Information Security. This is the highest level of security accreditation meaning that our system has been tested, penetration tested, and found to be secure.

MR484 - MORTALITY OF GULF WAR VETERANS — DARS-NIC-148024-P8GSC

Type of data: information not disclosed for TRE projects

Opt outs honoured: Y, N, Identifiable (Section 251 NHS Act 2006)

Legal basis: Section 251 approval is in place for the flow of identifiable data, Health and Social Care Act 2012 – s261(7)

Purposes: No (Ministerial Department)

Sensitive: Sensitive

When:DSA runs 2016-09-26 — 2020-08-05 2016.04 — 2016.11.

Access method: Ongoing, One-Off

Data-controller type: MINISTRY OF DEFENCE (MOD)

Sublicensing allowed: No

Datasets:

  1. MRIS - Cause of Death Report
  2. MRIS - Cohort Event Notification Report
  3. MRIS - Scottish NHS / Registration
  4. MRIS - Flagging Current Status Report
  5. MRIS - Members and Postings Report

Objectives:

Armed forces personnel who served in the Gulf War during 1990-1991 report more current ill-health than those who were not deployed. There has been concern expressed that they may also experience higher mortality rates. The aims of this study are to document the mortality experience of UK Gulf War veterans in the 8 years since the end of the war.

Yielded Benefits:

This Data Sharing Agreement permits the retention of the data for an interim period but no other processing of the data is permitted. Permission to retain the data for the interim period is a practical step to enable the study to comply with the necessary legal and ethical requirements. If, for any reason, it is not possible for the study to meet the necessary requirements, this Agreement will be terminated, and destruction of the data will be required In any future application, the applicant will be required to provide details of the yielded benefits resulting from the study in line with NHS Digital Standards. The following information provides background information on the yielded benefits of the original study and subsequent data sharing agreement with the then HSCIC. The previous data sharing agreement enabled analysis on the causes of death amongst the cohorts, followed by the production of annual National Statistics. In doing so, the MOD was able to confirm that there was no excess in deaths (including suicide) amongst the Gulf cohort. The processing has also enabled active surveillance of the cohort. A further benefit is that the MOD is setting up an oversight board to consider the findings from this study (alongside the other longitudinal veteran studies). The board will ensure that any adverse findings are shared in a timely manner and that appropriate interventions are put in place to support veterans. Members will include representatives from all four nations' healthcare services, relevant charities and MOD policy staff.

Expected Benefits:

This Data Sharing Agreement permits the retention of the data for an interim period but no other processing of the data is permitted.

Permission to retain the data for the interim period is a practical step to enable the study to comply with the necessary legal and ethical requirements. If, for any reason, it is not possible for the study to meet the necessary requirements, this Agreement will be terminated, and destruction of the data will be required

In any future application, the applicant will be required to provide details of the expected benefits resulting from the study.

The following information provides background information on the expected measurable benefits of the original study and subsequent data sharing agreement with the then HSCIC.

If an excess of any cause of death or cancer registration is identified, then this will trigger further targeted studies with the aim of influencing policy to improve support and services to veterans of this conflict. Policies targeted will depend on findings however will be raised to the MOD oversight board Members of this board will include representatives from all four nations' healthcare services, relevant charities and MOD policy staff.

If no there are no significant findings no action will be taken; however, these cohorts will be continued to be monitored. If there are any significant findings this will trigger further targeted studies with the aim of influencing policy to improve support and services to veterans of this conflict.

Veterans will benefit from any subsequent improvements in support and services as a result of the study. The MOD and the public (including veterans) will benefit from a better understanding of the possible effects of deployment.

Rates of suicide (and other causes of death) and cancer registrations will be compared to the UK population to identify if there are any excesses.

Outputs:

No new outputs will be produced under this Data Sharing Agreement.

This Data Sharing Agreement permits the retention of the data for an interim period but no other processing of the data is permitted.

Permission to retain the data for the interim period is a practical step to enable the study to comply with the necessary legal and ethical requirements. If, for any reason, it is not possible for the study to meet the necessary requirements, this Agreement will be terminated, and destruction of the data will be required

In any future application, the applicant will be required to provide details of the outputs that were produced and disseminated by the study as well as details of any future outputs planned.

The following information provides background information on the expected output activities of the original study and subsequent data sharing agreement with the then HSCIC.

The MoD published annual statistics between 2003 and 2016. Annual updates have not been published since 2016.

Processing:

NHS Digital reminds all organisations party to this agreement of the need to comply with the Data Sharing Framework Contract requirements, including those regarding the use (and purposes of that use) by “Personnel” (as defined within the Data Sharing Framework Contract i.e.: employees, agents and contractors of the Data Recipient who may have access to that data).

Mortality data was supplied to the Ministry of Defence by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (which has since become NHS Digital) for the purpose of a research study -
MR484 - MORTALITY OF GULF WAR VETERANS

This Data Sharing Agreement permits the retention of the data for an interim period but no other processing of the data is permitted.

Permission to retain the data for the interim period is a practical step to enable the study to comply with the necessary legal and ethical requirements. If, for any reason, it is not possible for the study to meet the necessary requirements, this Agreement will be terminated, and destruction of the data will be required.