§ Lord Jenkin of Rodingasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will give details of the four boards set up to oversee the development of standards in several key areas of National Health Service information systems, including their membership, terms of reference, and the date or dates on which they are asked to report; and whether their reports will be published. [HL2676]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathThe Information for Health strategy emphasised the need for agreed mechanisms for information standards. To meet this need, the Department of Health has established the NHS Information Standards Board (ISB) to approve information standards with representatives from the NHS and industry to agree the requirement for a standard, approve the standard and disseminate information about the standard.
The main board is the decision-making body and will formally approve new standards, and all amendments to existing standards. However, substantial input is required from three specialist sub-boards to enable the Information Standards Board to function effectively. These are the Clinical Information Standards Board, the Management Information Standards Board and the Technical Information Standards Board. These sub-boards consult widely on all draft standards.
189WAFurther details relating to the National Health Service Information Standards Boards are contained on their web-site: www.isb.nhs.uk. This includes terms of reference, membership and dates of meetings and published outputs.