Application for transfer of data from NHS Digital to NHS Wales Informatics Service
NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) · Devolved Administration
Expired The latest version ended on 30 April 2020. The September 2026 register still lists the agreement, but its term has passed.
- Reference
- DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S
- Latest version
- v4.2
- Term of latest version
- 1 March 2020 to 30 April 2020
- Start date
- Before 1 December 2019
- Data controller
- Joint Data Controller
- Commercial purposes
- No
- Sublicensing
- No
- Files released to date
- 0
Data controllers
- Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
- Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
- Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
- Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board
- Hywel Dda University Health Board
- Powys Teaching Health Board
- Swansea Bay University Health Board
Why the data was released
Objective for processing
NHS Wales Informatics Service – NWIS (hosted by Velindre NHS Trust) are applying for data about Welsh residents treated in England. The data sent to NWIS by NHS Digital will be used for onward disclosure to the originating referring Health Boards and Trusts within NHS Wales.
NHS Wales delivers services through seven health boards in Wales. These seven Local Health Boards (LHBs) are responsible for planning and delivering medical services, and aim to integrate specialist, secondary, community and primary care and health improvements within Wales.
The seven local health boards (LHBs) in Wales are:
• Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
• Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
• Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
• Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board
• Hywel Dda University Health Board
• Powys Teaching Health Board
• Swansea Bay University Health Board
Each LHB is responsible for delivering all NHS healthcare services within a geographical area.
Under this agreement, NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) will process data on behalf of the following LHBs only:
• Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
• Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
• Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
• Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board
• Hywel Dda University Health Board
• Powys Teaching Health Board
• Swansea Bay University Health Board
These LHBs will also process the data themselves.
This agreement is to permit the flow of identifiable Secondary Use Service (SUS) data back into Wales following Welsh residents being treated in NHS England established healthcare providers.
Identifiable data is required as, without this, patients and NHS budgets cannot be managed and Health Board and Trust providers face significant disruption by not having visibility of the exact coded procedures conducted on the patient.
The data is required for medical purposes on the basis that it is required for both Direct and Indirect healthcare circumstances to include:
• Healthcare planning
• Commissioning & validation of services
• National Tariff reimbursement
• Development of national policy
• Direct healthcare
• Supporting the needs of the Health Boards in the management of their resources and services.
External research purposes may only be supported where additional s251 and NHS Digital approvals are in place. This includes the use of pseudonymised (or anonymised data in line with ICO Code as a minimum) derived from the identifiable data provided under this agreement.
The key purposes of this application are:
• to assist in performance management of the NHS (including clinical practitioners) including clinical performance and quality of care generally;
• to support the management and planning of health services centrally and locally;
• for general medical research and statistical functions (following approval by the appropriate parties as stated above)
• to identify public health issues;
• to monitor improvements in public health;
• to develop, monitor and evaluate government policies, and otherwise support the work of the NHS Department of the Welsh Government;
• to contribute to the production of Welsh Government statistical publications
• to assess the effective delivery of care;
• to determine fair access to health care;
• to improve the patient/carer experience;
• to examine health outcomes;
• for public, Welsh Government and parliamentary accountability; and
• to support the needs of the Health Boards in the management of their resources and services.
The purpose of this application falls under Article 6 (1) (e) of the GDPR and the lawful basis for using information collected routinely for administrative purposes is the ‘public task’. The application also falls under Article 9 (2) (h), the processing is necessary achieving purposes in the public interest e.g. identifying public health issues, to improve patient experience and to assess the effective delivery of care.
Processing activities
The identifiable SUS data will be disseminated from NHS Digital to NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS).
NWIS may only act as Data processor for the Local Health Boards (LHBs), and will only:
- create specific Health Board views of the SUS data for uses that extend to Direct and Indirect care uses. The data is linked back with all activity (regardless of where the patient has been treated) related to the patient and required for the purposes defined in this agreement.
- disseminate (for direct care only) the identifiable SUS data to the respective LHBs & Trusts in Wales who have health and care responsibilities within their statutory functions .
- anonymise/pseudonymise that identifying data for National uses as instructed by the LHBs.
The processing of the data is consistent with all other processing performed on behalf of health boards and trusts for all patient activity within Wales.
The data is disseminated every month to include up to date patient episodes – this refresh may change previously inaccurate information from NHS Digital and the LHB’s/Trusts and any incorrect coded information against the patient. This ensures continual data quality and improvements.
NWIS operates a cascading permissions model for granting users access to the SUS data. User access is defined in the member of staff’s published role and responsibilities. All of NWIS’ externally-facing systems (and associated networks) are penetration tested on an annual basis, including all those which link back in any way to the processing of SUS data.
In the above context the IM&T strategy for NHS Wales - Better Information - Better Health stated "From April 1999 the Patient Episode Database for Wales (PEDW) will be used as the main source of comparative inpatient and daycase data." Since that time the Admitted Patient Care data held in PEDW has been supplemented with data which covers a much wider range of hospital activity, and these are used to monitor the performance of the NHS in Wales, to carry out disease surveillance, and to inform the reconfiguration of health services at a local and national level,
The current list of datasets included under the banner of PEDW is as follows:
• Admitted Patient Care (APC), which includes records relating to inpatient and daycase admissions plus and regular attendees
• Outpatient attendances (OPA), which contains records relating to attendances at outpatient clinics
• Outpatient Referrals
• Emergency Department Dataset (EDDS), which includes records relating to attendances at both Emergency Departments and Minor Injury Units
• Critical Care admissions
• Postponed Admitted Procedures
• Mental Health MDS
• Financial data
Expected output
Outputs will be varied, but are expected to cover at least the following:
1. Commissioner reporting.
2. Readmissions analysis.
3. Production of project / programme level dashboards.
4. Monitoring of acute / community / mental health quality matrix.
5. Clinical coding reviews / audits.
6. Data Quality and Validation measures allowing data quality checks on the submitted data
7. Patient Stratification, such as:
o Patients at highest risk of admission
o Most expensive patients (top 15%)
o Frail and elderly
o Patients that are currently in hospital
o Patients with most referrals to secondary care
o Patients with most emergency activity
o Patients with most expensive prescriptions
o Patients recently moving from one care setting to another
i. Discharged from hospital
ii. Discharged from community
8. Clinical - understand reasons why patients are dying, what additional support services can be put in to support.
9. Understanding where patient are dying.
Expected measurable benefits
Benefits
There are three main direct & indirect healthcare implications for Health Boards and Trusts:
• Managing patient pathways across boundaries, particularly the management of the Single Cancer Pathway and determining those patients that are waiting for treatment.
• Managing complications where patients treated in England present back at their local hospital with infections and other complications.
• Presenting recall of patients unnecessarily when they have had treatment in English Hospitals
For indirect healthcare provisions and additional to that described above other benefits of receiving the SUS data are to:
Enable the management of individual SLAs with English providers in relation to:
• Identification of the patterns of patient flows for each LHB;
• Assess the appropriateness of the care pathway
Performance planning
• Facilitate the development of key performance/efficiency/clinical indicators
• Monitor geographical equity of access/provision;
• Facilitate evidence based commissioning.
Financial governance, planning and improved expenditure
Quality of care provision
• Identification of inappropriate activity
• Identification of variations in clinical outcomes
Benefits reported so far
From data already provided under the current agreement the following expected benefits have been achieved.
• Improved patient Care
• Improved delivery of Health Services
• Joined up Health Care
• Funding benefits / financial
• Health protection and prevention including Covid-19 data
Datasets on the latest version
Legal basis for provision: Not stated
| Dataset | Type of data | Sensitivity | Frequency | Confidential data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secondary Uses Service Payment By Results Accident & Emergency | Identifiable | Non-Sensitive | Ongoing | Statutory exemption to flow confidential data without consent |
| Secondary Uses Service Payment By Results Episodes | Identifiable | Non-Sensitive | Ongoing | Statutory exemption to flow confidential data without consent |
| Secondary Uses Service Payment By Results Outpatients | Identifiable | Non-Sensitive | Ongoing | Statutory exemption to flow confidential data without consent |
Files released
Files released counts only files released externally by DARS. Access granted in NHS England's own systems, such as its Secure Data Environment, is not included.
No files recorded as released under this agreement.
Version history
The register lists each renewal of this agreement as a separate row. This site has 3 versions — earlier versions existed before this site's records begin.
DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S-v4.2 1 March 2020 to 30 April 2020
- Title
- Application for transfer of data from NHS Digital to NHS Wales Informatics Service
- Commercial
- No
- Sublicensing
- No
- Datasets
- 3
- Files released
- 0
Datasets: Secondary Uses Service Payment By Results Accident & Emergency; Secondary Uses Service Payment By Results Episodes; Secondary Uses Service Payment By Results Outpatients
What changed from DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S-v3.2
Text removed is struck through; text added is underlined. Unchanged paragraphs are summarised rather than repeated.
| Field | Was | Became |
|---|---|---|
| Start date | 2020-03-01 | |
| End date | 2020-04-30 |
Objective for processing
[28 paragraphs unchanged]
•
To support
Supporting
the needs of the Health Boards in the management of their resources and services.
• External research purposes (in these circumstances NWIS relies on other s251 and NHS Digital approvals).
External research purposes may only be supported where additional s251 and NHS Digital approvals are in place. This includes the use of pseudonymised (or anonymised data in line with ICO Code as a minimum) derived from the identifiable data provided under this agreement.
[3 paragraphs unchanged]
• for general medical research and statistical functions (following approval by the appropriate
parties)
parties as stated above)
[4 paragraphs unchanged]
•
to assess the effective delivery of care;
[6 paragraphs unchanged]
Processing activities
The identifiable SUS data will be disseminated from NHS Digital to
NWIS.
NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS).
NWIS (as Data processor) creates specific Health Board views of the SUS data for uses that extend to Direct and Indirect care uses. The data is linked back with all activity (regardless of where the patient has been treated) related to the patient and required for the purposes defined below.
NWIS may only act as Data processor for the Local Health Boards (LHBs), and will only:
NWIS will then disseminate (for direct care only) the identifiable SUS data to the respective LHBs & Trusts in Wales who have health and care responsibilities within their statutory functions .
- create specific Health Board views of the SUS data for uses that extend to Direct and Indirect care uses. The data is linked back with all activity (regardless of where the patient has been treated) related to the patient and required for the purposes defined in this agreement.
- disseminate (for direct care only) the identifiable SUS data to the respective LHBs & Trusts in Wales who have health and care responsibilities within their statutory functions .
- anonymise/pseudonymise that identifying data for National uses as instructed by the LHBs.
[3 paragraphs unchanged]
To allow NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) to receive identifiable data and anonymise/pseudonymise for National uses.
[10 paragraphs unchanged]
Benefits reported
Not stated in the previous version; added here.
From data already provided under the current agreement the following expected benefits have been achieved.
• Improved patient Care
• Improved delivery of Health Services
• Joined up Health Care
• Funding benefits / financial
• Health protection and prevention including Covid-19 data
Unchanged: Expected output, Expected measurable benefits.
DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S-v3.2 1 February 2020 to 29 February 2020
- Title
- Application for transfer of data from NHS Digital to NHS Wales Informatics Service
- Commercial
- No
- Sublicensing
- No
- Datasets
- 3
- Files released
- 0
Datasets: Secondary Uses Service Payment By Results Accident & Emergency; Secondary Uses Service Payment By Results Episodes; Secondary Uses Service Payment By Results Outpatients
What changed from DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S-v2.2
Text removed is struck through; text added is underlined. Unchanged paragraphs are summarised rather than repeated.
| Field | Was | Became |
|---|---|---|
| Start date | 2020-02-01 | |
| End date | 2020-02-29 |
Unchanged: Objective for processing, Processing activities, Expected output, Expected measurable benefits.
Objective for processing
NHS Wales Informatics Service – NWIS (hosted by Velindre NHS Trust) are applying for data about Welsh residents treated in England. The data sent to NWIS by NHS Digital will be used for onward disclosure to the originating referring Health Boards and Trusts within NHS Wales.
NHS Wales delivers services through seven health boards in Wales. These seven Local Health Boards (LHBs) are responsible for planning and delivering medical services, and aim to integrate specialist, secondary, community and primary care and health improvements within Wales.
The seven local health boards (LHBs) in Wales are:
• Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
• Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
• Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
• Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board
• Hywel Dda University Health Board
• Powys Teaching Health Board
• Swansea Bay University Health Board
Each LHB is responsible for delivering all NHS healthcare services within a geographical area.
Under this agreement, NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) will process data on behalf of the following LHBs only:
• Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
• Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
• Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
• Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board
• Hywel Dda University Health Board
• Powys Teaching Health Board
• Swansea Bay University Health Board
These LHBs will also process the data themselves.
This agreement is to permit the flow of identifiable Secondary Use Service (SUS) data back into Wales following Welsh residents being treated in NHS England established healthcare providers.
Identifiable data is required as, without this, patients and NHS budgets cannot be managed and Health Board and Trust providers face significant disruption by not having visibility of the exact coded procedures conducted on the patient.
The data is required for medical purposes on the basis that it is required for both Direct and Indirect healthcare circumstances to include:
• Healthcare planning
• Commissioning & validation of services
• National Tariff reimbursement
• Development of national policy
• Direct healthcare
• To support the needs of the Health Boards in the management of their resources and services.
• External research purposes (in these circumstances NWIS relies on other s251 and NHS Digital approvals).
The key purposes of this application are:
• to assist in performance management of the NHS (including clinical practitioners) including clinical performance and quality of care generally;
• to support the management and planning of health services centrally and locally;
• for general medical research and statistical functions (following approval by the appropriate parties)
• to identify public health issues;
• to monitor improvements in public health;
• to develop, monitor and evaluate government policies, and otherwise support the work of the NHS Department of the Welsh Government;
• to contribute to the production of Welsh Government statistical publications
to assess the effective delivery of care;
• to determine fair access to health care;
• to improve the patient/carer experience;
• to examine health outcomes;
• for public, Welsh Government and parliamentary accountability; and
• to support the needs of the Health Boards in the management of their resources and services.
The purpose of this application falls under Article 6 (1) (e) of the GDPR and the lawful basis for using information collected routinely for administrative purposes is the ‘public task’. The application also falls under Article 9 (2) (h), the processing is necessary achieving purposes in the public interest e.g. identifying public health issues, to improve patient experience and to assess the effective delivery of care.
Expected output
Outputs will be varied, but are expected to cover at least the following:
1. Commissioner reporting.
2. Readmissions analysis.
3. Production of project / programme level dashboards.
4. Monitoring of acute / community / mental health quality matrix.
5. Clinical coding reviews / audits.
6. Data Quality and Validation measures allowing data quality checks on the submitted data
7. Patient Stratification, such as:
o Patients at highest risk of admission
o Most expensive patients (top 15%)
o Frail and elderly
o Patients that are currently in hospital
o Patients with most referrals to secondary care
o Patients with most emergency activity
o Patients with most expensive prescriptions
o Patients recently moving from one care setting to another
i. Discharged from hospital
ii. Discharged from community
8. Clinical - understand reasons why patients are dying, what additional support services can be put in to support.
9. Understanding where patient are dying.
DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S-v2.2 1 December 2019 to 31 January 2020
- Title
- Application for transfer of data from NHS Digital to NHS Wales Informatics Service
- Commercial
- No
- Sublicensing
- No
- Datasets
- 3
- Files released
- 0
Datasets: Secondary Uses Service Payment By Results Accident & Emergency; Secondary Uses Service Payment By Results Episodes; Secondary Uses Service Payment By Results Outpatients
Objective for processing
NHS Wales Informatics Service – NWIS (hosted by Velindre NHS Trust) are applying for data about Welsh residents treated in England. The data sent to NWIS by NHS Digital will be used for onward disclosure to the originating referring Health Boards and Trusts within NHS Wales.
NHS Wales delivers services through seven health boards in Wales. These seven Local Health Boards (LHBs) are responsible for planning and delivering medical services, and aim to integrate specialist, secondary, community and primary care and health improvements within Wales.
The seven local health boards (LHBs) in Wales are:
• Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
• Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
• Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
• Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board
• Hywel Dda University Health Board
• Powys Teaching Health Board
• Swansea Bay University Health Board
Each LHB is responsible for delivering all NHS healthcare services within a geographical area.
Under this agreement, NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) will process data on behalf of the following LHBs only:
• Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
• Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
• Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
• Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board
• Hywel Dda University Health Board
• Powys Teaching Health Board
• Swansea Bay University Health Board
These LHBs will also process the data themselves.
This agreement is to permit the flow of identifiable Secondary Use Service (SUS) data back into Wales following Welsh residents being treated in NHS England established healthcare providers.
Identifiable data is required as, without this, patients and NHS budgets cannot be managed and Health Board and Trust providers face significant disruption by not having visibility of the exact coded procedures conducted on the patient.
The data is required for medical purposes on the basis that it is required for both Direct and Indirect healthcare circumstances to include:
• Healthcare planning
• Commissioning & validation of services
• National Tariff reimbursement
• Development of national policy
• Direct healthcare
• To support the needs of the Health Boards in the management of their resources and services.
• External research purposes (in these circumstances NWIS relies on other s251 and NHS Digital approvals).
The key purposes of this application are:
• to assist in performance management of the NHS (including clinical practitioners) including clinical performance and quality of care generally;
• to support the management and planning of health services centrally and locally;
• for general medical research and statistical functions (following approval by the appropriate parties)
• to identify public health issues;
• to monitor improvements in public health;
• to develop, monitor and evaluate government policies, and otherwise support the work of the NHS Department of the Welsh Government;
• to contribute to the production of Welsh Government statistical publications
to assess the effective delivery of care;
• to determine fair access to health care;
• to improve the patient/carer experience;
• to examine health outcomes;
• for public, Welsh Government and parliamentary accountability; and
• to support the needs of the Health Boards in the management of their resources and services.
The purpose of this application falls under Article 6 (1) (e) of the GDPR and the lawful basis for using information collected routinely for administrative purposes is the ‘public task’. The application also falls under Article 9 (2) (h), the processing is necessary achieving purposes in the public interest e.g. identifying public health issues, to improve patient experience and to assess the effective delivery of care.
Expected output
Outputs will be varied, but are expected to cover at least the following:
1. Commissioner reporting.
2. Readmissions analysis.
3. Production of project / programme level dashboards.
4. Monitoring of acute / community / mental health quality matrix.
5. Clinical coding reviews / audits.
6. Data Quality and Validation measures allowing data quality checks on the submitted data
7. Patient Stratification, such as:
o Patients at highest risk of admission
o Most expensive patients (top 15%)
o Frail and elderly
o Patients that are currently in hospital
o Patients with most referrals to secondary care
o Patients with most emergency activity
o Patients with most expensive prescriptions
o Patients recently moving from one care setting to another
i. Discharged from hospital
ii. Discharged from community
8. Clinical - understand reasons why patients are dying, what additional support services can be put in to support.
9. Understanding where patient are dying.
Register history
When this agreement appeared in, or was edited in, each monthly edition of the register. Built by comparing every edition this site holds, the earliest of which is July 2021.
-
July 2021 —
already listed in the earliest edition this site holds, so it may be older. 3 versions: DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S-v2.2, DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S-v3.2, DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S-v4.2
-
March 2022
Amended DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S-v2.2
- Organisation type:
NHS England Commissioning or Geographic Region→ Devolved Administration
Amended DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S-v3.2- Organisation type:
NHS England Commissioning or Geographic Region→ Devolved Administration
Amended DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S-v4.2- Organisation type:
NHS England Commissioning or Geographic Region→ Devolved Administration
- Organisation type:
"Amended in place" means NHS England changed the record without issuing a new version number. The register publishes no changelog for those edits; this site infers them by comparing editions. An edit is attributed to the edition it first appears in, not to the date it was made.
Cite this page
NHS England (2026) Data Uses Register, September 2026 edition, agreement DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S, “Application for transfer of data from NHS Digital to NHS Wales Informatics Service”. Read via NHS Data Access Explorer (unofficial), https://healthdatauses.uk/agreements/dars-nic-314399-k4j9s/ (accessed [date]).
This address stays the same, but the page is rebuilt with each monthly edition, so the citation names the edition it shows. Every edition's data is kept in the facts store.
Source: datausesregister_september2026.xlsx, September 2026 edition of the NHS England Data Uses Register. Search that workbook for DARS-NIC-314399-K4J9S to see the original rows.