Privacy policy

Summary of initiative or policy

On 14 August 2025, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced the appointment of Baroness Amos as Chair of the Independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation (here on referred to as ‘the Investigation’) to understand the systemic issues behind why so many women, babies and families experience unacceptable care.

The Investigation will review the quality and safety of maternity and neonatal services delivered to women, babies and families across England, identifying routes to reduce the incidence and severity of harm done to women, babies and families.

This will have a particular focus on the experiences of women, babies and families as they engage with all stages of the maternity and neonatal care pathway.

The voices of women and families, including fathers and non-birthing partners, are critical to the Investigation and will shape the national recommendations it will publish.

Data controller

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is the data controller. Data processors include:

• NHS England for the purpose of providing analytical support to the
• Supplier of trauma, critical incident and emotional and psychological support service – PAM Wellness
• Supplier of transcription service for recorded interviews – EPIQ Europe Ltd
• Supplier of pre-paid cards to remunerate family members giving evidence to the Investigation for their time – Soldo
• The supplier of the Call for Evidence which will inform the output of the Investigation – SocialOptic
• The supplier of the digital mailroom services – MBA Group Ltd
• The supplier of interpretation services – Language Empire
• The supplier of the translation service which will be used to translate correspondence received by the Investigation in some foreign languages into English – (supplier to be confirmed)
• Supplier of the workforce The workforce survey will be used to gain insights from staff working in maternity and neonatal services, which will inform the output of the Investigation – Picker Institute Europe

What personal data we collect

In the course of the Investigation, we will collect information through a range of means, including interviews and evidence sessions, local trust investigations and a call for evidence.

In the course of the investigation, we may collect personal information such as:

• name
• age
• contact details
• sex
• gender
• voice recording
• geographical location
• nationality/immigration status
• children and other family members
• bank details
• job title

We may also collect “special category data”, such as data relating to health, race/ethnicity, religious beliefs, racial or ethnic origin, and sexual orientation.

All personal data we receive will be handled fairly and lawfully in accordance with data protection legislation.

The contact details collated may be used to keep individuals and/or stakeholders informed of the progress of the investigation and/or key updates of the Investigation.

How we use your data (purposes)

The voices of women and families, including fathers and non-birthing partners, are at the heart of the Investigation. Your experiences will guide the Investigation’s work and shape the national recommendations it will publish. We anticipate receiving a significant amount of personal information in the course of our work.

The Investigation collects and uses, and will – in time – destroy personal information and sensitive personal information, for the purposes of fulfilling the investigation’s terms of reference, which are published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-maternity-and-neonatal-investigation-terms-of-reference/national-maternity-and-neonatal-investigation-terms-of-reference.

The Investigation may receive this personal information from you directly, particularly given its focus on understanding the experiences of women and families. It could also receive personal information through public engagement activities in the event that this information is volunteered.

It may also receive information about individuals via its evidence gathering from hospital trusts and other bodies.

The Investigation will produce one clear set of national recommendations to achieve high quality, safe care across maternity and neonatal services, and ensure that women and families are listened to.

To inform the recommendations, the information that you and others provide will be analysed and themes and sentiment will be identified. Any such information will be reported on in aggregate only. A large language model (artificial intelligence) may be used to aid the thematic analysis of the data of people’s experiences of maternity and neonatal services. If such a model is used, it will be used in a closed, secure environment, and none of the information collected via the call for evidence will be used for learning or training of the model. Outputs from the model will only be used to support a manual analysis of key themes, and will be reviewed by analysts and quality assured before being incorporated into any summary reporting.

Legal basis for processing personal data

Under Article 6 of the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful basis we rely on for processing personal data is:

(e) the processing is necessary to perform a task or function in the public interest or for our official functions and the task or function has a clear basis in law

In addition, we are also processing special category data under the following conditions per Article 9 of the UK GDPR:

(g) reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law), namely statutory and government purposes.

Data processors and other recipients of personal data

During the course of the Investigation, your personal information may be shared by with the following groups:

• • NHS England (NHSE) for the purpose of providing analytical support to the Investigation through a team of NHSE Analysts. Identifiable personal information, such as names or dates of birth, will generally be anonymised. However, there will be a need to share some personal data with analysts over the course of the Investigation to allow full and thorough data analytics to take place. In these instances, data will be managed and stored in a secure data environment with access restricted only to named analysts and strictly in accordance with the data protection principle relating to appropriate technical and organisational measures. The data will be analysed and only reported on at aggregate level protecting the anonymity of those individuals that have taken part in the Investigation.
  • Supplier of trauma, critical incident and emotional and psychological support service – PAM Wellness
  • Supplier of transcription service – EPIQ Europe Ltd
  • Supplier of pre-paid cards to remunerate family members giving evidence to the Investigation for their time – Soldo
  • Supplier of the Call for Evidence to capture a broad range of experiences from people who have experienced pregnancy and their families that will be used as evidence to inform the outcome of the investigation – SocialOptic
  • Supplier of the workforce survey which will be outsourced and conducted on behalf of the Investigation. Personal data of those participating in the survey will be collected. Data will be analysed and only shared back at aggregate level protecting the anonymity of the survey respondents – Picker Institute Europe
  • The supplier of the digital mailroom This service will process paper-based correspondence on behalf of the Investigation and provide digitisation services to allow it to be processed – MBA Group Ltd
  • The supplier of interpretation services. This service offers telephone or video interpretation in a range of languages to allow individuals to share their experiences in their preferred language – Language Empire
  • The supplier (to be confirmed) of the translation service which will be used to translate correspondence received by the Investigation in the following languages to English (this service also includes provision to cover correspondence received in braille):
    • Polish
    • Romanian
    • Bengali
    • Arabic
    • Gujarati
    • Punjabi
    • Urdu

The Investigation may also share your personal data with the following external entities who will act as separate controllers of your personal data:

• Courts, police, other law enforcements or regulators where we are required by law to do so, where the sharing is in the public interest or where we have obtained your consent to do so.

Finally, the Investigation may also share information with other parties in the event that:

• safeguarding concerns are identified and raised in line with the

Investigation’s safeguarding protocol; or

• patient or staff safety concerns are identified and raised in line with the investigation’s escalation protocol.

Should this be necessary, the lawful basis for processing will be Article 6(1)(f) of the UKGDPR (legitimate interests) and the condition of processing any special category will be Article 9(2)(g) of the UKGDPR (reasons of substantial public interest with a basis in law) with the corresponding substantial public interest condition being to safeguard children or individuals at risk.

Each organisation is responsible for holding personal information securely in accordance with data protection legislation.

International data transfers and storage locations

Any personal information collected will be stored in the UK and managed in line with the DHSC’s personal information charter.

Retention and disposal policy

Personal data will be retained by the Investigation on DHSC systems for the planned lifespan of the investigation (10 months) and for the time it will take the DHSC Maternity Taskforce to develop a new national action plan to drive improvements across maternity and neonatal care (at least one year, then to be reviewed on an annual basis). However, some types of personal information such as addresses and emergency contact details will be disposed of as soon as the information is no longer needed.

How we keep your data secure

DHSC uses a range of technical, organisational and administrative security measures to protect any information we hold in our records from:

• Loss
• Misuse
• Unauthorised access
• Disclosure
• Alteration
• Destruction

Your rights as a data subject

By law, you have a number of rights, and this processing does not take away or reduce these rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 applies.

These rights include:

1. The right to receive copies of information – you have the right to ask for a copy of any information about them that is used.
2. The right to have information corrected – you have the right to ask for any information held about them that they think is inaccurate, to be corrected.
3. The right to limit how the information is used – you have the right to ask for any of the information held about you to be restricted.
4. The right to object to the information being used – you can ask for any information held about them not to be However, this is not an absolute right, and continued use of the information may be necessary, you will be advised if this is the case.
5. The right to have information deleted – this is not an absolute right, and continued use of the information may be necessary, and again you will be advised if this is the case.

Comments or complaints

If you or anyone is unhappy or wishing to complain about how personal data is used as part of the Investigation, contact the DHSC Data Protection Officer:

Email: data_protection@dhsc.gov.uk

Post:

Data Protection Officer
Department of Heath and Social Care 1st Floor North
39 Victoria Street London
SW1H 0EU

Anyone who is still not satisfied can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Its website address is www.ico.org.uk and its postal address is:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Automated decision making or profiling

No decision will be made about individuals’ data solely based on automated decision making (where a decision is taken about them using an electronic system without human involvement) which has a significant impact on them.