COVID-19 Vaccine Data

As part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS England has been commissioned by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to operate the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. As part of the Programme, NHS Digital acts as a processor of Vaccination Status Data and Adverse Reaction Data (the Vaccine Data) for NHS England, a copy of which is stored in the NHS Digital Data Processing Service (DPS).

There is a need for this data to be made available to a number of organisations for COVID-19 purposes and therefore NHS England and NHS Digital have agreed that NHS Digital should also become a joint controller of the Vaccine Data held in DPS with NHS England under the COVID-19 Public Health (NHS England) Directions 2020 (COVID-19 Directions) to facilitate the analysis, linkage and dissemination of the Vaccine Data to requestors who have an appropriate legal basis to process it. This will maximise the efficiency of dissemination of the Vaccine Data for the benefit of the healthcare system and urgent COVID-19 research, including research into the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.

This Notice is served on:

• NHS Commissioning Board (NHS England)

The collection will commence from the first date this DPN is provided to NHS England and will continue until the COVID-19 Directions expire (or are replaced by other directions) or NHS Digital and NHS England agree to cease the collection.

18 March 2022: Version 1.2 of this Notice has been issued to reflect a change in scope, in line with NHS England policy, regarding data about any individuals vaccinated overseas, limited to those presenting at English services having had a vaccination which is one of the products recognised as being suitable for collection within this asset.