Appendix 2: Designated individuals

It is proposed that, wherever possible, a registered health professional should sign requests for the cancer registration information. We recognise that people with other training are appointed to some of these posts; for example, Directors of Public Health for some Primary Care Trusts and Local Health Boards (LHB) in Wales, where they could reasonably be expected to sign ex officio.

Possible signatories for the different organisations requesting different types of data are listed below, but their inclusion does not necessarily mean that anyone or only one of them can sign for a given request. Depending on the purpose of the request, Cancer Registry Directors should use their discretion as to who should sign, and for some requests, several signatories may be needed. For some purposes, signatories may be specified in Service Level Agreements between registries and particular organisations.

NHS Trust

Data type

Possible signatories

Clinician's own data/data re patients of predecessor

Clinician (needs to sign stating taken over care of patients from predecessor)  

Caldicott Guardian for patients not now managed by any clinician in trust

Medical Director for patients not now managed by any clinician in trust

Cancer site-specific data

• Lead Cancer Clinician

• Lead Tumour Site-Specific Clinician

 • Lead Clinician for Audit (if stated for audit)

• Caldicott Guardian

• Medical Director

Data for the whole Trust /Local Health Board

• Lead Cancer Clinician

• Lead Clinician for Audit (if stated for audit)

• Caldicott Guardian

• Medical Director

Data for Split Site Trusts/Cancer Centres/ Local Health Boards

• Lead Cancer Clinician from each unit

• Lead Clinician for Audit from each unit

(if stated for audit)

• Caldicott Guardian from each unit

• Medical Director from each unit

Private Hospital

Data type

Possible signatories

Clinician's own data

• Clinician

All hospital

• Signatures of all Clinicians of patients involved

• Medical Director

NHS Pathology Laboratory

Data type

Possible signatories

All NHS Trusts/ Local Health Boards they serve for pathology cases only

• Senior Pathologist/ Clinical Head of Pathology Service

• Caldicott Guardian from each of the Trusts /Local Health Boards

• Medical Directors from each of the Trusts /Local Health Boards

Private Pathology Laboratory

Data type

Possible signatories

Own pathology patients only

• Head of Pathology Services

Medical Director

Hospice

Data type

Possible signatories

Own patients – complete records

All data for hospice

• Clinician

Signatures of all Clinicians

• Medical Director

General Practitioners

Data type

Possible signatories

Own patients – either at diagnosis or registered at time of request

All data for practice

• GP with whom the patient is registered

• Signatures of all GPs

• Head of Practice

• Caldicott Guardian of relevant PCT /Local Health Board

Cancer Network

Data type

Possible signatories

All network – either patients diagnosed or treated in the network or for cases resident in the network geographical boundaries

• Network Lead Cancer Clinician

• Lead Clinician for Audit (if stated for audit)

Multi-Disciplinary Team – either patients diagnosed or treated in the network or for cases resident in the network geographical boundaries

• Network Lead Cancer Clinician

• Network Lead Tumour Site-Specific Clinician

• Lead Clinician for Audit (if stated for audit)

• Signatures of all Clinicians in the MDT

• Lead Clinician for the MDT

Cancer tumour site-specific data – either patients diagnosed or treated in the Network or for cases resident in the Network geographical boundaries

• Network Lead Cancer Clinician

• Network Lead tumour Site-Specific Clinician

• Lead Clinician for Audit (if stated for audit)

Quality Assurance Reference Centres

Data type

Possible signatories

Relevant patients (normally within the screening target age band but extended to older age groups for the purposes of screening status determination)

Regional Directors of Breast, Cervical and Bowel Cancer Screening Quality Assurance,  Director of Screening Services for Wales



A Service Level Agreement covering routine data flows between the QARC and cancer registry will be signed by the QA Director and Registry Director.

Ad hoc data flows (e.g. data required as part of the investigation of an incident) will require the QA Director to complete the identifiable data release form.

Primary Care Trusts

Data type

Possible signatories

Own Patients – by general practice register or geographical boundaries (i.e. registered or responsible GP populations)

• Director of Public Health (DPH)

• Caldicott Guardian

Consortium analysis arrangements where one PCT/ Local Health Board is doing some work on behalf of others (say in an area previously covered by a single HA)

• Signatures of all DsPH of the participating PCTs

• Caldicott Guardians of the participating PCTs

Release of date and cause of death information

It is proposed that where possible a registered health professional signs requests for the death information, as this information forms part of the complete cancer registration record.

  • For audit data: the signatory should be the Lead Clinician for Audit.
  • For clinical trials data: the signatory should be the principal investigator for the trial(the signatory is actually signing that the patient had given informed consent to take part in the trial and to be followed-up, as part of the research trial).
  • For Medical Records data: the signatory should be the Lead Cancer Clinician.