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Data Access Request Service (DARS) charges

Find out about estimated DARS service charges listed by service component.

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How our charges are calculated

NHS England is publicly funded and we operate on a cost-recovery basis. We do not charge for data but we do apply charges to cover the cost of processing and delivering our service. We ensure charges are applied fairly and consistently, broadly determined by the amount of effort and approvals required.  An annual review of charges informs any changes to prices for implementation each April.

In addition, we continue to review the prices of our Data Access services, based on our current operating model. As part of this work, we will be undertaking a full review of our charges for sublicensing agreements. Any changes to the sublicensing agreement charges will be published on our website.

Charges are calculated on the following components:

  • where or how the data is accessed, for example, the extract service, SDE service or NHS DigiTrials
  • the type of application
  • the volume of data requested including any data linkage
  • the frequency that you require data 

Should the volume and complexity of requests require additional development work, these may be subject to additional charges and confirmed during the application process. 

Actual costs will be agreed with the customer during the application process. 

We also offer data services to support clinical trials and research. Find out about NHS DigiTrials and the NHS England Secure Data Environment.

Table of charges

Table of charges for applications accepted and agreed from 1 July 2025

Table of charges   Current charge Charge from 1 April 2026 
Charges for DARS application 
Service components - Unit cost   
Application type New application £1320  £1,431
Amendment/renewal/extension -  £1050  £1,138
Annual review fee1 - £640 £694
Charges DARS Extract Service      
Data volumes Per period (for example, monthly, quarterly or annual) per dataset2 £410 £445
Dissemination  Per dissemination3 £1190 £1290
Service required  Bespoke data linkage per dataset per dissemination4 £2640 £2862
Submission of cohort file/ participant data  - £540  £586
Permission to sub-licence (per annum)  - £12,820

£12,820

No change, further changes due later in 2026
Data archive - per year  - £320  £347

Charges to access the SDE

More details on SDE charging including further optional SDE user account charges and examples of costing scenario’s for the SDE, are available.

OpenSAFELY Analytics Platform

 OpenSAFELY Analytics Platform license fee £25,000. This charge excludes VAT. 

These charges are subject to VAT (at the current rate), if applicable.

Footnotes

1. Applies only to agreements covering more than one year, and is charged per every complete year beyond the first year. For example 13 months = one review, 25 months = two reviews. 

2. In addition to standard datasets, such as HES Outpatient and DIDS, this term covers: 

  • reports, for example ONS Mortality/Civil Registration or PROMs - these are provided as individual discrete reports (not necessarily defined by data years), and are charged per report 

  • bridging files, such as HES to ONS Mortality - not defined by data years, these are charged per number of actual bridge files required and their frequency 

  • work packages, such as Mental Health Data 

The Standard Extract Service has been replaced with the provision of regular bespoke extracts, which helps to minimise the data required. It is now costed as a number of individual extracts. 

3.  Applies for each delivery of data (each of which may include multiple datasets). This charge does not apply to medical research reports.

4. Includes linking multiple customer datasets, linking customer (or NHS England developed cohorts) to NHS England data. The linkage fee is charged each time customer data is linked and each time an extract is produced - for example, linking customer data to 3 HES datasets as well as SUS PbR will result in a linkage fee for linkage to HES as well as a linkage fee for linkage to SUS PbR (based on one dissemination of the linked datasets). If more than one dissemination is required, the linkage fees are chargeable each time for each dissemination.

Cost examples

We have provided some different examples of data requests and the associated costs. 

Scenario 1 - New application for a 3 year Data Sharing Agreement (DSA), from a non-commercial organisation. No plans to retain the data beyond the end of the DSA (specific data sets)

Application type: New application for a 3 year Data Sharing Agreement (DSA), from a non-commercial organisation. No plans to retain the data beyond the end of the DSA.

Dissemination: One-off extract of data to be supplied. 

Datasets: Data requested from period 2004/2005 to 2024/2025* (21 Associated Product Years). Products requested for this period:

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care (APC)

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Out Patient (OP)

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Accident and Emergency (A&E) / Emergency Care Dataset (ECDS)

Civil Registrations (Death)

Service:  Customer to supply a single cohort who are known to have had a stay in hospital in England. NHS England to perform initial cohort trace. Cohort to be linked to HES data and Civil Registrations (death).

Costs

Item cost (£) Amount Total
Application type New 1,431 1 1,431
Annual review (3 year DSA) 694 2 1,388
Dissemination One extract 1,290 1 1,290
Service Submission of cohort file or participant data  586 1 586
Bespoke Data Linkage HES 2,862 1 2,862
Bespoke Data Linkage Civil Registration Deaths  2,862 1 2,862
Data sets HES APC 2004/05 – 2024/2025 445 21 9,345
HES OP 2000/01 – 2024/2025 445 21 9,345
HES A&E /  ECDS 445 21 9,345
Civil Registration Deaths (one off) latest available 445 1 445
    total (ex VAT) 38,899

*Years run from 1 April to 31 March.

Scenario 2 - New application for a 3 year Data Sharing Agreement (DSA), from a non-commercial organisation. No plans to retain the data beyond the end of the DSA (specific data sets)

Application type: New application for a 3 year Data Sharing Agreement (DSA), from a non-commercial organisation. No plans to retain the data beyond the end of the DSA.

Dissemination: One-off extract of data to be supplied.    

Datasets: Data requested from period 2017/18, 2018/2019, 2019/2020. Products requested for this period:

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care (APC)

Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS) linked to HES

Service: Customer to define characteristics of data required to be linked from specific NHS England datasets. Therefore, no submission of cohort file or participant data required. NHS England to link MSDS data to HES.

Costs:

Item cost (£) Amount Total (£)
Application type New 1,431 1 1,431
Annual review (3 year DSA) 694 2 1,388
Dissemination One extract 1,290 1 1,290
Service Bespoke Data Linkage HES MSDS 2,862 1 2,862
Data sets HES APC 2017/18 – 2019/20 445 3 1,335
HES MSDS 2017/18 – 2019/20 445 3 1,335
    Total (exc VAT) 9,641
Scenario 3 - New application for a 3-year Data Sharing Agreement (DSA). Plans to renew after 3 years and to continue with no fixed end date

Application type: New application for a 3-year Data Sharing Agreement (DSA). Plans to renew after 3 years and to continue with no fixed end date (subject to ongoing approval from NHS England to receive and process data and subject to further costs).    

Dissemination: Quarterly extract to be provided by NHS England over the 3-year period. No historical data is needed.  

Service: Customer to submit a single cohort of individuals for linkage to various datasets held by NHS England. NHS England to perform initial cohort trace.

Datasets: Quarterly updates to be disseminated over 3 years.

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care (APC)

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Out Patient (OP)

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Critical Care (CC)

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Accident and Emergency (A&E) / Emergency Care Dataset (ECDS)

Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) linked to HES

Diagnostic Imaging Data Set (DIDS) linked to HES

Civil Registration Deaths linked to HES

Cost

Item cost (£) Amount Total (£)
Application type New 1,431 1 1,431
Annual review (3 year DSA) 694 2 1,388
Dissemination 4 extracts per year 1,290 12 15,480
Service Submission of cohort file/
participant data 		 586 1 586
Bespoke data linkage HES 2,862 12 34,344
Bespoke data linkage (MHSDS) 2,862 12 34,344

Bespoke data linkage (DIDS)

 2,862 12 34,344
Bespoke data linkage (Deaths) 2,862 12 34,344
Data sets HES APC 586 12 7,032
HES CC 586 12 7,032
HES A&E/ ECDS 586 12 7,032
HES OP 586 12 7,032
MHSDS 586 12 7,032
DIDS 586 12 7,032
Deaths 586 12 7,032
    Total (Exc VAT) 205,485

Last edited: 26 February 2026 12:27 pm