Privacy Notice
Discontinuations and Shortages (DaSH) Portal
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is responsible for this service and work with the National Health Service Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) who manage the DaSH Portal provision.
The DaSH Portal is a system for Market Authorisation Holders (MAHs) to inform DHSC about potential medicine supply issues (shortages or discontinuations) under Part 6 of the Health Service Products (Provision and Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2018 that came into force on 1 January 2019.
These regulations mean MAHs have a mandatory requirement to inform DHSC medicines supply team at least six months prior to the shortage or discontinuation happening, or where this information is not available six months in advance, it must be provided as soon as reasonably practicable after the producer makes the decision to discontinue or becomes aware that there may be a supply shortage. Also, these regulations mean DHSC can request supply information from MAHs, and they must respond within 2 working days with quantities of stock available for a specific products and any equivalent products.
Following reporting, DHSC will need to continue to communicate securely with medicine suppliers about the potential supply issues until they are resolved. For this reason contact details are needed to understand who is speaking on behalf of the MAHs, and continue correspondence accordingly.
Data Controller
DHSC and NHSBSA are joint data controllers for the DaSH Portal.
Categories of personal data we collect and process
The DaSH Portal will collect the following personal data:
- Your name - so we know who we are speaking with on behalf of an MAH
- Your email address - so we allow you access to the DaSH Portal and can continue correspondence offline about supply issues.
The DaSH Portal will also collect your company name, company address and telephone number (on occasion) so we can ensure the regulations are complied with and for recording users against a specific company.
Why we process your information
We will use the information you provide to:
- Manage potential medicines supply issues
- Communicate with you about potential medicine supply issues
- Record activity involving communication between DHSC, yourself and your company
- analyse trends and data relating to medicine supply issues
The Health Service Products (Provision and Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2018 were used as the basis for the data we require marketing authorisation holders to provide DHSC and the timeframes for providing it within.
Lawful basis for processing the personal data
DaSH is operating under the following conditions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provisions including in article 6 (1) c:
- processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject
This service will not process any Special Category Data such as those outlined in article 9 of GDPR provisions.
Data processors and other recipients of the data
Sharing your personal information
We may share your information with:
- pharmacy professional staff employed by DHSC in the medicine supply team
- medicine supply officials within the devolved administrations (Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive) and Crown Dependencies (Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man)
- NHSBSA staff who provide technical support to DHSC and you as a user.
Processing and storage
Your information will not be transferred outside the UK or European Economic Area unless you, at any time, reside outside of that area and the transfer is required so we can contact you about the service and/or pay you.
Disposal and retention of personal data
DHSC will delete your personal data within one year after the last issue your user login was recorded against is closed.
Your rights
The information you provided will be managed as required by Data Protection law.
You have the right to:
- receive a copy of the information DHSC hold about you
- request your information be changed if you believe it was not correct at the time you provided it
- request that your information be deleted if you believe we are keeping it for longer than necessary
Find out more about your rights and how we process information.
Complaints
Anyone unhappy or wishing to complain about how personal data is used as part of this programme, should contact data_protection@dhsc.gov.uk in the first instance or write to:
Department of Health and Social Care
1st Floor North
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0EU
Anyone who is still not satisfied can complain to the Information Commissioners Office. Their website address is www.ico.org.uk and their postal address is:
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Security
Appropriate technical, organisational and administrative security measures in line with regulatory guidelines are used to protect any information held from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. Written procedures and policies are in place which are regularly audited, and the audits are reviewed at senior level.
Automated decision making or profiling (if applicable)
No decision will be made about individuals solely on the basis of automated decision making (where a decision is taken about them using an electronic system without human involvement) which has a significant impact on them.
Changes to this policy
This privacy notice is kept under regular review, and new versions will be available on our privacy notice page on our website. This privacy notice was last updated on 20 October 2020.