Data transfer information
Please note: Information that has been held previously by NHS Morecambe Bay Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS Blackpool CCG, NHS Fylde and Wyre CCG, NHS Chorley South Ribble CCG, NHS Greater Preston CCG, NHS West Lancashire CCG, NHS Blackburn with Darwen CCG and NHS East Lancashire CCG was transferred to NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria (LSC) Integrated Care Board (ICB) on 1 July 2022, who became the new data controller.
Any questions about the use of data (including patient data) should be directed to lscicb.contactus@nhs.net.
At NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
The Integrated Care Board (ICB) has various roles and responsibilities, but a major part of our work involves making sure that:
- Contracts are in place with local health service providers to ensure that you can receive healthcare free at the point of delivery.
- Routine and emergency NHS services are available to patients;
- Those services provide high quality care and value for money; and
- Paying those services for the care and treatment they have provided.
This is called “commissioning”.
Accurate, timely and relevant information is essential for our work to help us to design and plan current and future health and care services, evidence and review our decisions and manage budgets.
As a commissioning organisation, our purpose is not to provide direct care and so we do not routinely hold or receive information about patients and service users in relation to your care.
We do however sometimes hold information from which people can be identified to enable us to fulfil our responsibilities as outlined above and this is explained in this notice.
What is a privacy notice?
A privacy notice is a statement that describes how an organisation collects, uses, retains and discloses personal information. Different organisations sometimes use different terms and it can be referred to as a privacy statement, a fair processing notice or a privacy policy.
To ensure that we process your personal data fairly and lawfully we are required to inform you:
- Why we need your data
- How it will be used and
- Who it will be shared with
This information also explains what rights you have in controlling how we use your information. The key laws are:
- The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA)
- UK General Data Protection Regulations 2021 (UKGDPR)
- The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) and;
- The Common Law Duty of Confidentiality.
Within these pages we describe instances where NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB is the ‘Data Controller’, for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018, and where we direct or commission the processing of patient data to help deliver better healthcare, or to assist the management of healthcare services.
NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB recognise the importance of protecting personal and confidential information in all that we do, whilst taking great care to ensure our legal obligations are met.
Complaints about how we process your personal information
Please see https://www.lancashireandsouthcumbria.icb.nhs.uk/contact-us/customer-care-team for ICB contact details.
If, however, you are not satisfied that your complaint has been resolved, you have the right to contact the Information Commissioner to lodge a complaint:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow SK9 5AF
ico.org.uk
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Changes to our privacy notice
We keep our privacy notice under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page. This notice was last updated on 23rd January 2025.
Data protection notification
NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB is a ‘Data Controller’ under the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA18). We have notified the Information Commissioner that we process personal data and the details are publicly available from the:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane,
Wilmslow SK9 5AF
ico.org.uk
Registration number: ZB392902
How to contact us
Please contact us via our data protection officer if you have any questions about our privacy notice or information we hold about you:
Hayley Gidman
Data Protection Officer
Tel: 01782 916875
Email: mlcsu.dpo@nhs.net
What information do we collect?
We only collect and use your information for the lawful purposes of administering the business of NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB.
We process personal information to enable us to support the provision of healthcare services to patients, maintain our own accounts and records, promote our services, and to support and manage our employees. To enable us to do this effectively we are often required to process personal data i.e. that which identifies a living individual.
We also process special category data. This is personal data which the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA18) says is more sensitive, and so needs more protection:
- Racial and ethnic origin
- Offences (including alleged offences), criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
- Trade union membership
- Religious or similar beliefs
- Employment tribunal applications, complaints, accidents, and incident details.
This information will generally relate to our staff.
In terms of patient information, the special category data we process includes:
- Physical or mental health details
- Racial and ethnic origin
- Sexual orientation
- Details of care
How the NHS and care services use your information
Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident & Emergency or using community care services, important information about you is collected to help ensure you get the best possible care and treatment.
The information collected about you when you use these services can also be provided to other approved organisations for purpose beyond your individual care, for instance to help with:
- improving the quality and standards of care provided
- research into the development of new treatments
- preventing illness and diseases
- monitoring safety
- planning services
This may only take place when there is a clear legal basis to use this information. All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential patient information about your health and care is only used like this where allowed by law, and would never be used for insurance or marketing purposes without your explicit consent.
National data opt out
Most of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified in which case your confidential patient information isn’t needed.
You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.
To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters.
On this web page you will:
- See what is meant by confidential patient information
- Find examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care
- Find out more about the benefits of sharing data
- Understand more about who uses the data
- Find out how your data is protected
- Be able to access the system to view, set or change your opt-out setting
- Find the contact telephone number if you want to know any more or to set/change your opt-out by phone
- See the situations where the opt-out will not apply
Type 1 opt-out
If you do not want personal confidential data that identifies you to be shared outside your GP practice, for purposes beyond your individual care, you can register a ‘Type 1 opt-out’ with your GP practice. This prevents your personal confidential information from being used for anything except your care, except when it is required by law, such as a public health emergency like an outbreak of a pandemic disease.
Patients are only able to register this opt-out at their GP practice. If you would like to opt-out or discuss further, then please talk to your GP or the healthcare professional supporting you.
You can also find out more about how patient information is used at:
https://www.hra.nhs.uk/planning-and-improving-research/best-practice/public-involvement/putting-people-first-embedding-public-involvement-health-and-social-care-research/ (which covers how public involvement is embedded in health and care research) and
https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know (which covers how and why patient information is used, the safeguards and how decisions are made)
You can change your mind about your choice at any time.
Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes and data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.