Existing data has been made available on the website from across public sector organisations. As a central source of national health data and statistical information, The NHS IC has provided over 400 data entries to the new site. Initially, this includes recorded hospital activity from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and national care quality indicators from our recent Indicators of Quality Improvement (IQI) resource.

Visit the new public website at www.data.gov.uk.

Improving public and patient access to information is one of our core business objectives. We are the main data supplier for the NHS Choices website for patients and routinely provide comparative indicators for inclusion in organisational scorecards.

We welcome this new government initiative which highlights the increasingly important role of information in empowering the public to make informed decisions about their health and other public services.