Anonymisation Standard for Publishing Health and Social Care Data
This process standard for publishing health and social care data provides an agreed and standardised approach to anonymisation.
About this standard
- Publisher
- NHS England
- Reference code
- ISB1523
- Publication date
- 25/02/2013
- Status
- Active
Show definitions of statuses
Active. Active standards are stable, maintained and have been approved, assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.
Deprecated Deprecated standards are available for use and are maintained, but are being phased out, so new functionality will not be added.
Retired standards Retired standards are not being maintained or supported and should not be used.
- Standard type
- Information standards
Show definitions of standard types
Collections. A Collection is a systematic gathering of a specified selection of data or information for a particular stated purpose from existing records held within health and care systems and electronic devices.
Extractions. An extraction is a type of collection that is pulled from an operational system by the data controller and transmitted to the receiver without additional processing or transcription by the sender.
Information standards. Information standards are agreed ways of doing something, written down as a set of precise criteria so they can be used as rules, guidelines, or definitions.
Technical Standards and specifications. Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.
- Contact point
Link to standard
- Documentation
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- Applies to
- Secretary of State (Department of Health)
- The NHS Commissioning Board
- Public bodies publishing information about provision of health/adult social care
- Effective from
- 30/04/2013
Topics and care settings
- Topic
- Information codes of practice
- Information governance
- Care setting
- Community health
- Dentistry
- Hospital
- Maternity
- Mental health
- Pharmacy
- Transport / Infrastructure
- Urgent and Emergency Care
Dependencies and related standards
- Dependencies
No known dependencies.
- Related standards
- Information Governance Framework (retired) Published as ISB1512 Amd 159/2010 Information Governance Framework.
- Data Security and Protection Toolkit
- Sensitive Data (deprecated) Published as ISB1572 Amd 97/2010 Sensitive Data.
- Information Governance Framework (retired)
Legal basis and endorsements
- Legal authority
Section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
This information standard is published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
More information
The law pulls in two opposite directions. Human Rights and Data Protection legislation, along with our domestic common law duty to respect confidentiality, require us to protect information that could identify an individual. The Freedom of Information Act requires public authorities to release information about their activities, and this message is reinforced by the government’s transparency agenda. Although the law makes a clear distinction between identifying and nonidentifying data, where that line should be drawn may be far from clear in practice. That is why this anonymisation standard for publishing health and social care data is needed. This process standard provides an agreed and standardised approach, grounded in the law, enabling organisations to:
- Distinguish between identifying and non-identifying information
- Deploy a standard approach and a set of standard tools to anonymise information to ensure that, as far as it is reasonably practicable to do so, information published does not identify individuals.
Page last updated: 04 May 2024