CAG Advice and HRA/SofS Approval Decisions

New guidance for CAG applicants and potential applicants on reducing the disclosure of confidential patient information is available here.

Details of all approvals are held in the Register of approved applications. It contains a summary of the activity, details of the identifiers approved and contact details for the applicant. If you are a data controller seeking confirmation on whether an application has been approved and the specific application details, you should obtain a copy of the approval letter directly from the applicant in the first instance. Applicants should also be asked to address queries about approval scope in the first instance. The Register details all applications that have received approval from the Secretary of State for Health or the Health Research Authority (HRA approvals from 1 April 2013). For convenience, the Register is divided into four documents as follows:

April 2013 onward approved research applications (Excel, 996KB)
April 2013 onward approved non-research applications (Excel, 798KB)
January 2009 – March 2013 approved applications (advice provided by the NIGB ECC) (Excel, 3.43MB)
2001 – 2008 approved applications (advice provided by PIAG) (Excel, 2.39MB)

Please note that the register is updated every month. Please note that if you experience any difficulties accessing the above files we advise that you right-click on the link and click to save the file on your computer/network. You should then able to open the saved file. The minutes from each meeting will hold detailed information on the CAG rationale for each application advised against. If there are any further queries the Confidentiality Advice Team can be contacted (020 7972 2557).

Using the register of approved applications

To search the Register of approved applications please follow details below:

When in the Index worksheet, hold “ctrl + F”
Select “Options”
Under “Look in” select the drop down field “Values”
Enter search term in “Find What”
Select “Find Next”

Each application entry will show a ‘next review date’. If this date has passed but the entry still shows approved it is likely that an annual review is in the process of approval. If you are a data controller checking that a study has valid approval please contact the Confidentiality Advice team for confirmation. If you are an applicant and you think there is an error with your entry, or if any of the details have changed please let us know promptly so this can be amended.

Advice and approval

Detailed CAG advice on each considered application is located within the minutes of each meeting. The minutes of the precursor bodies to CAG (PIAG from 2001-2008 and ECC from 2009-2013) are also found here and provide details on the advice given by these precursor bodies.

Minutes of previous CAG meetings

Sub-committee and Precedent set minutes

The sub-committee meeting minutes include all advice provided by precedent set sub-committees, sub-committees and by Chair action. The date refers to the CAG meeting at which the advice was reported.