Secondary use permissions refer to those granted in law for organisations to process confidential patient information, without patient consent, for specific purposes. The RA holds permissions to collect, process and share confidential patient information without consent to support its audit and research functions. The specific permissions held by the RA are described below.
| Purpose | Supporting legislation | Approving body | Permissions |
| Audit | s251 of NHS Act 2006 | Health Research Authority: Confidentiality Advisory Group | To collect data on patients with chronic kidney disease II-V, acute kidney injury, or on renal replacement therapy for the purposes of conducting clinical audit. Collected data can be linked with datasets held by NHS Blood & Transplant (transplant), NHS Digital (Hospital Episode Statistics, Civil Registrations), Public Health England (infections) and NHS Wales Informatics Service (Patient Episode Data Wales). |
| Research | s251 of NHS Act 2006 | Health Research Authority: Confidentiality Advisory Group | To use the data collected for audit to create a research database to which researchers based in NHS or academic institutions can apply to access for the purposes of conducting research which improves the care and outcomes of patients with kidney disease. |