Keeping data secure and giving individuals more control

In our weekly expert view piece, Victoria Hordern, privacy and cybersecurity lawyer at Hogan Lovells, examines the UK government's proposals on data security and data sharing in the health sector.

From a data protection and data security perspective, data in the health sector in the UK has appeared particularly vulnerable over the years. Reports from the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on data security incident trends have repeatedly highlighted that the health sector experiences the most breaches. Reasons for that include the size of the health sector, the sensitivity of the data and the mandatory requirement within the UK government to report breaches to the ICO.

As all industries and the public sector increasingly digitise their processes, the government has indicated a renewed focus on data security and data sharing and, on 6 July, published two independent reviews concerning data security and data sharing in the health and care system in England. The two independent reviews are the: