Required reports for running health services

Health services have national activity and payment-reporting requirements as well as duties to exchange information for a person's care. The required electronic action varies: a provider may send structured records, keep data ready for extraction, or submit a payment claim. A return simply means a report an organisation submits.

The examples below cover hospital appointments in England, general-practice (GP) appointment data in Wales, community glaucoma assessment claims in Scotland, and hospital bed use and specified activity in Northern Ireland. General Medical Services (GMS) identifies the relevant type of NHS general-practice contract; Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts are the NI reporting bodies in this comparison.

For each example, read the information, organisation, method, timing and authority together. England, Wales and the selected Scottish claim have identified binding electronic requirements within their conditions. The precise legal basis for NI's particular digital route remains qualified. Scotland's separate hospital-statistics target is retained as operational evidence below.

Four examples at a glance

Nation	Selected information exchange	What makes the digital action compulsory?
England	Covered providers send hospital outpatient activity to NHS England.	A statutory data requirement specifies electronic submission. The chosen outpatient dataset is reported at least weekly.
Wales	GMS practices keep mapped GP appointment information available for extraction.	Regulations prescribe the contract terms: maintain the information, enable extraction and review submitted data at least monthly.
Scotland	Participating clinicians submit community glaucoma assessment claims to the national Agency.	Statutory directions require Boards to impose clinician terms. Those terms require electronic claims within three months.
Northern Ireland	HSC Trusts provide quarterly hospital bed-use and specified non-acute activity reports to the Department.	A statutory Trust reporting framework and Department instructions are identified. The precise link to a legally required digital channel remains qualified.

Read each national explanation for its sources, conditions and private-provider boundary. The corresponding catalogue entries are ENG-015, WAL-003, SCT-D04 and NI-P01.

England: hospital outpatient activity

The selected example is Commissioning Data Sets (CDS) type 020, covering outpatient appointments, including non-attendance. These patient-level records support planning, monitoring and payment. They are more detailed than a count of appointments. The collection's wider scope includes other hospital activity. ^{193, 194}

Question	Answer
What information?	The required outpatient appointment records under CDS type 020, with the specified data items, definitions and codes. Apply the relevant release and submission rules. ^{193, 293}
Who sends it, and to whom?	Secondary-care providers within the Data Provision Notice send the data to NHS England through the Secondary Uses Service, SUS+. The older notice uses the former NHS Digital name. ^{011, 193, 292}
What must be digital?	Send the applicable structured XML (Extensible Markup Language) files to SUS+. Current service instructions identify Message Exchange for Social Care and Health (MESH) as the transfer route. XML defines the data format; MESH provides the NHS transfer service. ^{193, 290, 291}
When?	At least weekly for the chosen type 020 example. The notice also names weekly types 120, 130 and 140. Other data types and payment/reconciliation cut-offs have their own timetables; there is no universal day for every CDS submission. ¹⁹⁴
Statutory or contractual basis?	Health and Social Care Act 2012 section 259 and the CDS Data Provision Notice establish the statutory collection requirement, including form, manner and period. Applicable adopted NHS contract terms can add reporting duties. This is distinct from the saved have-regard status of older section 250 standards. ^{011, 193, 181}
Are private providers covered?	Covered NHS-funded independent secondary care and NHS private-patient units are included. The notice does not establish a duty for every wholly private clinic or all independent self-pay activity. ^{193, 292}

The current release page retains version 6.2 maintenance alongside version 6.3. Check the applicable release, specification and reporting calendar for the provider and collection. ²⁹³

Wales: GP appointment activity

This example is about making data available for extraction. A practice with a Welsh General Medical Services (GMS) contract maintains mapped appointment information, reviews submitted data and keeps its server available. The prescribed duties concern data maintenance, extraction availability and monthly review. The downstream processing dates are explained separately below. ¹⁹⁵

Question	Answer
What information?	Mapped GP appointment activity and current categories. The official statistical account describes attended or missed appointments, appointment mode, practitioner type and consultation reason. ^{195, 294}
Who provides it, and to whom?	The Welsh GMS contractor maintains the relevant information for the Primary Care Information Portal and authorised extraction process. Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) operates the reporting tools; Welsh Government receives a downstream aggregate statistical extract. ^{195, 294}
What must be digital?	Maintain mapped appointments and current categories, and keep the practice server switched on, maintained and available for the relevant extraction software. Regulation 23 does not prescribe FHIR, XML or a practice-authored monthly upload. ¹⁹⁵
When?	The contract must require server availability at all times and review of submission data at least once each month. The operational account separately describes daily Audit+ extraction and DHCW's previous-month extraction on the tenth. Those processing dates are not additional statutory practice-upload deadlines. ^{195, 294}
Statutory or contractual basis?	Welsh GMS Regulations 2023 regulation 23(1)(a)–(d), within the prescribed contractual framework. Regulation 23(2) also addresses collaborative discussion to support demand management and data quality. ¹⁹⁵
Are private providers covered?	An independent practice holding the covered NHS GMS contract must meet its terms. Non-GMS and non-NHS practices are outside this statistical population. This is not a rule for every wholly private GP, hospital or social-care provider. ^{195, 294}

Only the downstream Welsh Government statistical extract is expressly described here as aggregate without personal identifiers. That description must not be applied automatically to all upstream processing. ²⁹⁴

Scotland: claims for community glaucoma assessments

This example follows payment claims for one national NHS service. The current Directions expressly require electronic claims. The trigger is submitting a claim for an assessment under the Community Glaucoma Service (CGS). ²¹⁶

Question	Answer
What information?	A claim for a primary or supplementary CGS assessment. The current form includes patient identification, including the Community Health Index (CHI) number, assessment type/date, clinical condition and outcome; supplementary assessments have a reason field. Those detailed fields come from the current form guide, rather than an exhaustive statutory field list. ^{216, 274}
Who sends it, and to whom?	An accredited clinician/practice submitting an assessment claim sends it to the Agency: the Common Services Agency, currently described as Public Services Delivery Scotland. Authorised practice administration can use the operational form. ^{216, 274}
What must be digital?	The required clinician terms expressly require electronic communication. The current route is the eOphthalmic Web Payments form. The Directions do not prescribe a universal FHIR interface or API. ^{216, 274}
When?	Within three months of the assessment date, when making an assessment claim. This is a claim-submission condition; a separate rule would be needed to establish reporting of all assessments independently of claiming. ²¹⁶
Statutory or contractual basis?	The CGS (No.3) Directions 2026 paragraph 14 requires Boards to impose the clinician terms. Schedule 4 paragraph 6 contains the electronic-claim and three-month requirements. The current Directions took effect on 1 November 2026, apart from the separate fees schedule. ²¹⁶
Are private providers covered?	Eligible independent practices and accredited clinicians participating in this NHS service are covered by the required terms. Accreditation and the service-provider definition matter: mobile practices, ophthalmic medical practitioners and bodies corporate are excluded from that definition. Purely private glaucoma care outside CGS does not acquire this claim duty. ²¹⁶

Hospital activity records: a separate, qualified example

Public Health Scotland (PHS) also documents electronic Scottish Morbidity Record 01 (SMR01) submissions for general/acute inpatient and day-case episodes. Its coverage includes contracted NHS beds in non-NHS institutions. Data-population coverage does not establish a direct reporting duty on every private provider. ^{270, 271}

PHS calls the reporting period a 42-day target after the end of the discharge month. The 2026 timetable gives a 6pm cutoff on 11 November for September records. Electronic submission and the target are verified; an SMR-specific direction, authorised demand or contractual clause making that electronic route and period legally binding was not located in this bounded review. The SCT-P01 entry therefore remains operational evidence, rather than a confirmed statutory deadline. This does not establish that no binding instrument exists. ^{270, 272, 273}

Northern Ireland: hospital bed use and activity

The selected report is KH03a. It combines aggregate available and occupied bed days with specified non-acute discharges, deaths and day cases. It supports hospital activity monitoring. It is separate from patient-level downloads used for other hospital statistics. ^{281, 283}

Question	Answer
What information?	Aggregate available/occupied bed days and the specified non-acute activity, classified under the KH03a hospital, programme and specialty rules. ^{281, 283}
Who sends it, and to whom?	HSC Trusts provide the covered hospital information to the Department of Health's statistical information branch. ^{281, 283}
What is the electronic route?	The official methodology describes electronic submission and aggregate Excel templates. The published timetable directs reports to the Department's designated returns email address. It does not establish a FHIR/API requirement or an exclusive statutory email-only rule. ^{282, 283}
When?	Quarterly. For the quarter ending 30 September 2026, the published submission date was 19 October 2026. Later quarters need their own issued timetable. The date for submitting data differs from the date when resulting statistics are published. ^{282, 285}
Statutory or contractual basis?	The 1991 Order, Schedule 3 paragraph 8, requires HSC Trusts to provide Department-required reports and planning information in the required form. The Department identifies KH03a and electronic reporting. The public collection documents do not expressly invoke paragraph 8, and the timetable uses “should” for submission to its email address. The specific legal linkage is therefore a reasoned interpretation, with a qualification. ^{280, 281, 282, 283}
Are private providers covered?	This statutory reporting framework binds HSC Trusts. KH03a excludes independent-sector beds and non-consultant-led activity. Separate independent-sector statistics do not establish a direct KH03a duty on every private hospital. ^{280, 281, 283}

The NI-P01 entry therefore remains in the qualified section of the catalogue. Its statutory reporting framework is established, while the precise legal authority for the named digital route remains unconfirmed.

Applying the comparison

For a particular organisation, identify the actual service, funding route, relevant report, adopted terms and current reporting period. Access and later use need their own legal justification. Apply the collection's limits, confidentiality and data protection alongside the reporting requirement. ^{001, 002, 005}

Digital requirements table · Planning, research and public health · Source register · Evidence matrix · Validation queue