Section 280 – The National Information Governance Board for Health and Social Care
1473.This section provides for the abolition of the National Information Governance Board for Health and Social Care (NIGB), and confers its functions on the Care Quality Commission.
1474.NIGB was established as a statutory body by section 250A of the NHS Act inserted by the Health and Social Care Act 2008. Its overall role is to support improvements to information governance practice in health and social care.
1475.Subsections (1) and (2) of section 280 abolish the NIGB and remove the sections of the NHS Act that established it.
1476.Subsection (3) inserts a new section 20A into the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the Care Quality Commission with functions to monitor the practice followed by registered providers in relation to the processing of information relating to patient and adult social care service users, and to keep the NHS Commissioning Board and Monitor informed about such practice.
1477.The new section 20A also places a duty on the Care Quality Commission, in exercising these functions, to seek to improve the practice followed by registered providers in relation to such processing. It defines the information relevant to these functions, the type of activity, and to whom the function applies.
1478.Subsections (4) and (5) make changes to existing duties:
The Care Quality Commission’s existing duty to consult the NIGB on its internal code of practice for managing confidential personal information before publication is changed to a duty to consult the NHS Commissioning Board (subsection (4)). Under provisions in Part 1, the NHS Commissioning Board is charged with developing standards and guidance in this area.
The Secretary of State’s existing duty to consult the NIGB before making any new regulations under section 251 of the NHS Act (permitting confidential patient information to be processed for certain purposes without consent) is changed to a duty to consult the Care Quality Commission (subsection (5)). As the Care Quality Commission has other functions only in relation to England it will not consider Welsh interests when consulted, therefore section 271 of the NHS Act (setting out the territorial limit of the Act) is also amended.
1479.Subsections (6) and (7) require the Care Quality Commission to appoint a National Information Governance Committee to advise and assist the Commission in discharging the functions conferred on it by this section. This committee is to be in place until 31 March 2015.
1480.The section also gives effect to Part 3 of Schedule 20 which makes consequential amendments and provides for the Secretary of State to be able to carry out any activity undertaken by or duties required of or in relation to the NIGB before, during, or after its abolition; and for a report to be prepared up to the date of abolition.
