ICO publishes guidance to improve transparency in health and social care

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is supporting health and social care organisations to ensure they are being transparent with people about how their personal information is being used.

The UK data protection regulator has today published new guidance to provide regulatory certainty on how these organisations should keep people properly informed.

The health and social care sectors routinely handle sensitive information about the most intimate aspects of someone’s health, which is provided in confidence to trusted practitioners. Under data protection law, people have a right to know what is happening to their personal information, which is particularly important when accessing vital services.

The guidance will help organisations to understand the definition of transparency and assess appropriate levels of transparency, as well as providing practical steps to developing effective transparency information.

Following a public consultation earlier this year the guidance incorporates feedback from health and social care organisations across the UK. Aimed at any organisation that delivers a heath or social care service or uses health and social care information, it supplements existing ICO guidance on the principle of transparency and the right to be informed.