Sources of data

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is committed to being open and transparent about how we manage data. To do this, we publish a quarterly report (released in January, April, July, and October) fulfilling our statutory functions to produce statistics for the public good and increasing our transparency of where data has come from and its principal uses.

The current report includes:

-     All datasets acquired by the ONS that contain personal data to comply with data protection legislation

-     Datasets without personal data

-     Datasets the ONS has created itself (for example, a dataset created from one of our surveys)

-     Datasets that are awaiting delivery or in development

For further details, please email KIM.Team@ons.gov.uk.

Overview of health data sources

The Office for National Statisitcs (ONS) uses a range of health data in our statistics. Health data are classed as "special category data" and can often include sensitive personal information. The ONS takes protecting confidentiality of such data very seriously and this section provides additional transparency on the health data we hold and how we protect it. We have a health data policy, and we provide information on how we treat NHS National Data Opt-outs. 

The pages below detail the main health data sources used by the ONS, and are grouped by provider. The information provided here is supplementary to the ONS Sources of External Data Register mentioned in Section 1 (although the health sources are included there too). Here we provide greater detail and transparency on the uses of these sources, including information on ethical scrutiny, data minimisation, data protection, and examples of impact.

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)

Abortion notifications

Digital Health and Care Wales

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations Data (Wales)

Emergency Department Data Set (EDDS) Wales

Patient Episode Database for Wales (PEDW)

General Register Office (GRO)

Birth registrations

Death registrations

NHS England (NHSE)

Birth notifications

Community Services Data Set (CSDS)

Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS)

General Practitioner Extraction Service (GPES) data for pandemic planning and research (GDPPR)

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) data

Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS)

Personal Demographic Service (PDS)

Office For National Statistics (ONS)

Census

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey (CIS)

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Test and Trace data for England

National Immunisation Management Service (NIMS) for COVID-19 Vaccinations

National Radiotherapy and Systematic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) Datasets