Purposes for processing

The targeted lung health checks (TLHC) programme is a new and ground-breaking flagship programme of work in England which will contribute to the ambition of the NHS Long Term Plan to improve early diagnosis and survival for those diagnosed with cancer.

The TLHC programme targets those most at risk of lung cancer and will work with Integrated Care Boards (previously CCGs), who have some of the highest rates of mortality from lung cancer. The programme will work with initially ten projects, but then expand to other Integrated Care Boards across England to deliver the programme. It is expected that this programme will run Nationally, covering all areas of England from 2024 onwards.

People aged over 55 years old but less than 75 years old that have ever smoked will be invited to a free lung check.

Following the lung health check those assessed as high risk will be offered a low dose Computerised Tomography (CT) scan.

NHS England is conducting a national evaluation to understand the impacts and economics of the programme. The evaluation is expected to demonstrate impacts on patient health outcomes, experience and wider health inequalities. Findings from the evaluation will ensure an evidence-based approach to NHS England’s longer-term strategy for wider roll out of a targeted screening programme of this kind.

This approach involves an analysis of data collected by the programme, and information recorded in interviews with patients and staff about their experiences.

Ipsos, together with the Strategy Unit at the Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (CSU), which is part of NHS England, have been appointed jointly as our national evaluation partner.

Ipsos will conduct telephone interviews with people who have agreed to be contacted and produce anonymous findings from those interviews.

More information about how data will be used by NHS England to evaluate its Cancer Referral Services is in their general privacy notice and its Cancer Programme Pilots Evaluation privacy notice.

Sources of data and categories of personal data

Integrated care boards coordinate the TLHC service locally acting for their constituent GP practices. Participants are invited for a lung health check by their integrated care board, or constituent GP practice, before being referred into secondary care for further investigations and treatment (where necessary).

Personal data about participants is collected across the pathway by integrated care boards to enable the delivery of the TLHC service to patients locally.

The national evaluation partner receives a data set from the integrated care boards for the purpose of evaluation. Participants will not be identifiable from this dataset. The dataset will include information on sex, age, marital status, main language, occupation, information about diagnosis, treatment and outcomes. You can read more about how your data will be evaluated and our legal basis to process as part of the Cancer Programme Pilots Evaluation notice.

The evaluation partner will also collect information about the experiences of participants and staff who have consented to be contacted, facilitated by the local integrated care boards. Information will be recorded in a way to ensure that individuals cannot be identified.

Categories of recipients

The Strategy Unit at the Midlands and Lancashire CSU, receives pseudonymised personal data. As detailed in the Cancer Pilots Evaluation privacy notice.

Ipsos also collects information through interviews with people who have consented to being contacted, which will be anonymised before sharing with NHS England. Ipsos acts as a processor for NHS England for the purposes of the evaluation.

Participants experience interviews

You might have been asked by your local targeted lung health check programme run by the integrated care board on behalf of your GP if you would like to feedback on your experience of the Targeted Lung Health Check programme as part of the service evaluation. In agreeing to this, the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for the following reason:

• To invite you to participate in an interview for the evaluation
• To evaluate the TLHC programme

Where you have consented to take part in the survey or an interview, NHS England will collect and process the following information for the purposes of the interview:

• Name and contact information
• Age band
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• Smoking status and intensity
• Previous engagement with the TLHC programme
• Your responses to interview/focus group

We will not keep any of your personal data collected as part of the survey or interview. Once your responses have been collated, your personal information will be anonymised.

Staff interviews

The personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for the following reasons:

• Invite you to participate in an interview for the evaluation.
• To evaluate the TLHC programme.

With your consent NHS England will collect and process the following information for the purposes of the interview:

• Name and contact information
• Your feedback to interview/focus group

We will not keep any of your personal data collected as part of the survey or interview.  Once your responses have been collated, your personal information will be anonymised.

Legal basis for processing for the purposes of patient experiences

For GDPR purposes NHS England’s lawful basis for processing is Article 6(1)(e) – ‘…exercise of official authority…’;

For the processing of special categories (health) data the basis is 9(2)(h) – ‘…health or social care…’, and 9(2)(j) ‘…statistical purposes…’.