Written Question·Department of Health and Social Care·UIN 16702

NHS: Data Protection

Tabled: 7 July 2026
Answered: 14 July 2026
Named Day

Question

Martin Wrigley

Liberal DemocratNewton Abbot

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who has custody over the encryption keys used to protect data held within the NHS Federated Data Platform and the Privacy Enhancing Technologies.

Answer

Preet Kaur Gill
NHS England owns the keys. The Privacy Enhancing Technology (PET) software generates, controls, and stores the key values securely, so they are not accessible to human users.The use of encryption keys is strictly controlled by NHS England for the NHS Fede...

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