Research Data Governance

The Centre for Health Economics (CHE) is a research department of the University of York, producing policy relevant research and innovative methods that advance the use of health economics to improve population health.

CHE's Research Strategy aligns with, and contributes to the University of York Research Strategy, including the overriding aim to be a university 'for public good'.

This page provides the public with information on our processing of personal data for research. This includes our published privacy notices, in addition to specific transparency information required for our processing of NHS England patient data.

Privacy Information

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires the University to identify a legal basis for processing personal data and, where appropriate, an additional condition for processing special category data. Some of the data we process (ethnicity and data concerning health) is in the category of special data. In line with our charter, which states that we advance learning and knowledge by teaching and research, the University processes personal data for research purposes under Article 6 (1) (e) of the UK GDPR: Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest. Special category data is processed under Article 9 (2) (j): Processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, or scientific and historical research purposes or statistical purposes.

Our privacy notices, shared below, provide you with details of the ways in which personal data received is processed by the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York, including how it is gathered, used, stored and shared. It also provides contact information should you have any questions or concerns.

Privacy notices

DARS-NIC-667040-B5T1X Privacy Notice - 19 Nov 2025 (PDF , 161kb)
Evaluating the cost-effectiveness of the Best Practice Tariff for hip fracture (PDF , 82kb)
Privacy notice for data received from the Bradford Institute of Health Research, (BIHR). (PDF , 125kb)
Privacy notice NIHR ARC mapping (PDF , 441kb)
Distributional cost-effectiveness analysis of screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm National Vascular Registry (NVR) (PDF , 154kb)
Privacy Notice for National Hip Fracture Database (PDF , 176kb)
Privacy Notice for Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) (PDF , 173kb) data used to estimate health inequalities in primary care.

Research using NHS England patient data

CHE’s research using NHS England data is organised into six priority areas (research themes):

Economic Evaluation and Health Technology Assessment
Health Policy
Equity in health and health care
Health and social care
Mental Health
Public Health

CHE’s processing of data is in the public interest because it adheres to the UK Policy Framework for Health and Social Care Research, which protects and promotes the interests of patients, service users and the public, and aims to produce generalisable and publicly available information to inform future decisions over patients’ treatments or care. CHE has a lawful basis for processing personal data, and processing special category data, under the UK GDPR. Further information on research using NHS England data, and our purpose for processing this data, is available in our NHS England Data Sharing Agreement: DARS-NIC-667040-B5T1X-v0.

Accessing NHS England patient data for research

For each individual project requiring access to NHS England data, our researchers must submit an application which is reviewed by the CHE Data Access Request Group (DARG). The DARG provides oversight of all requests to access NHS England data, and is responsible for the assessment and decision making on such requests. Further information is available in our NHS England Data Sharing Agreement and in the following links.

CHE Data Access Request Group Terms of Reference: this document provides information on the purpose, scope, and membership of the group, in addition to the process of reviewing applications to access NHS England data.
CHE Data Access Request Group Meeting Minutes: a summary of the applications reviewed in the monthly meetings, including the comments raised by members, and the outcome agreed.
Centre for Health Economics: NHS England Data Access Register (Public): a spreadsheet to record all applications received by the DARG, and the outcomes of these.