UK should make money from NHS patient data, says health minister

The UK should leverage its new Health Data Research Service (HDRS) for the “benefit of the Treasury coffers”, said Zubir Ahmed, health innovation minister. 

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer announced in May 2025 that the government and the Wellcome Trust would invest up to £600 million to create the service, which would bring access to data for medical research into one location.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Ahmed said that the HDRS will give researchers a single access point to national datasets for the first time and unlock “the power” of NHS data.

“There is no shame in saying, we have world leading examples of high quality care and high quality research, and we should be leveraging that for the benefit of the Treasury coffers, and patients and citizens in this country,” Ahmed said.

The service, which is expected to go live by the end of next year and be fully operational by 2030, will charge pharmaceutical companies and research organisations for access.

“We have something unique in the world that belongs to us, we need to leverage that commercially, but actually before we do that, we need to leverage that for our own citizens,” Ahmed added.

The plans for a HDRS follow an independent review of the UK’s health data, published in November 2024, by Professor Cathie Sudlow, chief scientist of Health Data Research UK, who called for barriers to accessing NHS patient data to be removed so that it can be used for medical research.

Responding to Ahmed’s comments, Rachel Power, chief executive at the Patients Association, told Digital Health News: “Patients want full transparency about who accesses data, how decisions are made, and how patient interests are protected.

“At the same time, medical research using NHS data can lead to life-saving breakthroughs in healthcare.

“The new HDRS must work in genuine partnership with patients to shape the design and delivery of the service, and we look forward to supporting that to happen.”

Saif Abed, cyber security expert and founding partner at the AbedGraham Group, has raised concerns about the privacy and security of patient data included in the HDRS.

“We all stand to benefit from NHS data and research analytics. However, I am yet to see evidence of an independent review into the state of NHS cyber security to allay any fears that I, or the public, may have about the protection of both patient data and wider NHS system resiliency.

“Once more I’m concerned that digital maturity is getting ahead of security maturity,” Abed told Digital Health News.

The HDRS has been approved as a government company and Baroness Nicola Blackwood has been appointed as its chair, with recruitment underway for a chief executive.

Meanwhile, doctors’ representatives have raised concerns over plans to allow researchers to access patient data from the pandemic for non-Covid-19 related research, which they fear could erode patient trust.

Digital Health News contacted the Department of Health and Social Care for comment.