Health and social care staff access to your records

Health and care staff should only look at your health or care records when they:

• are helping with your care
• need the information to do their job
• have permission for a specific reason, such as research.

Unlawful access is when someone looks at your records when they do not need to for one of the above purposes.

Unlawful access may be a crime and the person responsible could lose their job.

Find out more about the protection that is in place for your records, and what to do if you have any concerns, on the NHS Digital pages:
Stopping unlawful access to records guidance for patients and service users - NHS England Digital