And if you go to the page which tells you what approvals you need to get that personal confidential data you’ll find…
"What approvals do I need if I want to apply for personal confidential data?
I
f you wish to apply for personal confidential data you will need one of the following:
The consent of the individuals to whom the data relates. In this case you will need to provide evidence of the consent of the individuals concerned, i.e. the consent form and consent information literature. These will be reviewed by the HSCIC to ensure they are appropriate and, where necessary, approval will be sought from the Data Access Advisory Group (DAAG).
Approval under Regulation 5 of the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 (anecdotally known as ‘section 251 support’). In this case you will need to provide evidence of approval under section 251, i.e. a letter from the Health Research Authority Confidentiality Advisory Group (HRA CAG).Or,
The appropriate statutory regulation covering your organisation for the work required. In this case you will need to provide evidence of the statutory regulation concerned. This will be reviewed by the HSCIC to ensure it is appropriate.
Note: one exception to this is when bespoke data linkage is requested by a clinical care team in order to carry out audit or research projects in their service. In these cases, evidence will need to be provided as part of the application, such as a letter from HRA or the clinical lead."
