The Health and Social Care Act 2012 (Consistent Identifier) Regulations 2015

• Citation: S.I. 2015/1439
• Sections: 2

Section 1 Citation, commencement and interpretation

(1) —These Regulations may be cited as the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (Consistent Identifier) Regulations 2015.

(2) These Regulations come into force on 1st October 2015.

(3) In these Regulations, “ the Act ” means the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

Section 2 Consistent identifier

(1) For the purposes of section 251A (consistent identifiers) of the Act the NHS Number is specified as a consistent identifier.

(2) In this regulation–

(a) “NHS Number” means the number, consisting of 10 numeric digits, which serves as the national unique identifier used for the purpose of safely, accurately and efficiently sharing information relating to a registered patient across the whole of the health service in England;

(b) “the health service” has the meaning given in section 275 (index of defined expressions) of the National Health Service Act 2006 .