§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to ensure that patients are not charged more than £10 to see their medical records. [51044]
§ Mr. Milburn[holding answer 17 July 1998]: The Access to Health Records Act 1990 already provides that an application fee of no more than £10 can be charged for sight of a patient's records. However, the Act also allows record-holders to recover the costs of producing copies of the records if these are required, but record-holders should not seek to make a profit when calculating these charges.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the potential for breaching of the confidentiality of patients' personal medical information if the Department of Trade and Industry's proposals on regulating the use of encryption on public networks lead to the escrow of encryption keys for clinical data. [51651]
§ Mr. MilburnWe are awaiting proposals from the Department of Trade and Industry on the conditions and procedures which would govern the escrow of encryption keys where personal medical information is involved. Our concern to safeguard patient confidentiality has been relayed to the Department of Trade and Industry, and an assessment of the impact of the detailed proposals will be made when they are received.