England does not have one NHS Secure Data Environment — it has twelve. An NHS secure data environment is a controlled analysis platform that lets approved researchers work with de-identified NHS data without ever downloading it, and eleven regional SDEs plus one national NHS England SDE now make up the NHS Research SDE Network. This article compares how the South West, London, West Midlands, Yorkshire & Humber and North West SDEs actually differ in governance, oversight and researcher onboarding.
A Secure Data Environment (SDE) is a data storage and analysis platform that upholds the “Five Safes” framework — Safe People, Safe Projects, Safe Settings, Safe Data and Safe Outputs — so that approved researchers can analyse sensitive health and care data without it leaving NHS control. Every regional SDE follows this same national framework, but each was stood up by a different set of Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) or Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), so the governance body, the number of local partners, and the practical route a researcher takes to get access all vary by region.
- What is an NHS Secure Data Environment?
- How do the five regional SDEs compare in governance?
- What access route do researchers follow in each region?
- Common questions about NHS Secure Data Environments
- What this means for institutions and researchers
What is an NHS Secure Data Environment?
An NHS Secure Data Environment is a remote, audited analysis platform — sometimes called a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) — where approved researchers can query de-identified NHS health and social care data without exporting it. The programme follows the 2022 government review by Professor Ben Goldacre, which recommended SDEs as the default route for NHS research data access, and was adopted as national policy under the Data Saves Lives strategy, with the SDE programme funded from 2023.
The NHS Research SDE Network is made up of eleven regional SDEs plus one national SDE run directly by NHS England — twelve nodes in total. Every node applies the same Five Safes controls, but each regional SDE was established, funded and governed by a different local partnership of NHS organisations, which is why the access experience differs from region to region even though the underlying rules do not.
How do the five regional SDEs compare in governance?
The table below compares the South West, London, West Midlands, Yorkshire & Humber and North West SDEs on who governs them, how many local health partners feed into them, and what makes each one operationally distinct.
| Region | Governing partnership | Local partners | Distinctive feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| South West | South West SDE partnership, supported by Health Innovation West of England / South West Life Sciences | South West England ICSs | Public-facing “Your Data. Your Choice” leaflet and patient-communication programme |
| London | Split leadership: North East London ICS runs the London Data Service; North West London ICS runs the London Analytics Platform, under a pan-London Independent Information Access Group (IIAG) | All London ICSs, plus five sub-regional Data Access Committees (North West, North Central, North East, South East, South West London) | Two-part architecture (data service + analytics platform) built on the existing Discover-NOW model running since 2018 |
| West Midlands | West Midlands SDE partnership, owned and run by the NHS | Six ICSs: Black Country, Birmingham & Solihull, Coventry & Warwickshire, Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, and Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent | Single regional “Apply to West Midlands SDE” application portal covering all six ICSs |
| Yorkshire & Humber | Yorkshire & Humber SDE partnership | Yorkshire & Humber ICSs and data providers | “Single front door” data-discovery model plus a Citizens Jury for public and patient engagement |
| North West | North West SDE partnership | Three Integrated Care Boards covering North West England | Values-led governance charter (Diverse, Open, Accountable, Inclusive); standardised researcher access process still being finalised |
The clearest structural outlier is London, which splits governance across two platforms and five sub-regional committees rather than a single regional board — a reflection of London’s five-ICS geography rather than a difference in national policy.
What access route do researchers follow in each region?
Every regional SDE sits inside the same national guardrails, but the practical starting point for a researcher differs. In broad terms, the steps are: register interest with the relevant regional SDE team; secure a data-sharing agreement (nationally via NHS England’s Data Access Request Service, or through the regional equivalent); have the project reviewed against the Five Safes by the regional oversight body; complete researcher accreditation and training; then work inside the controlled virtual environment until outputs are checked and cleared for removal.
- South West: researchers apply directly through the South West SDE website, which also publishes a public leaflet explaining the region’s data-use commitments.
- London: applications go through the IIAG or the relevant sub-regional Data Access Committee, reflecting London’s split data-service/analytics-platform model; the platform is expected to be operational from April 2026, with GP data collection for the London Data Service having begun in Spring 2025.
- West Midlands: a single “apply now” route covers all six member ICSs, rather than requiring separate applications per local health system.
- Yorkshire & Humber: the “single front door” model directs researchers to a published dataset catalogue on the Health Data Research Gateway before submitting a data-availability request.
- North West: the SDE is functioning but has stated publicly that a standardised, fully documented access process is still being developed across its three ICB partners.
For institutional research administration teams supporting multi-site studies, this means the pre-application groundwork — which regional committee to approach, and what documentation it expects — cannot be assumed to be identical just because every SDE runs the same Five Safes model.
Common questions about NHS Secure Data Environments
What is a secure data environment?
A secure data environment is a data storage and analysis platform that lets approved researchers query sensitive health and care data remotely, without downloading or removing it. It is sometimes described as a Trusted Research Environment, Data Safe Haven or Databank, and is governed by the Five Safes framework.
What is the difference between an SDE and a TRE?
An SDE is functionally the same concept as a Trusted Research Environment (TRE): a controlled workspace for processing sensitive data. NHS communications favour the term “SDE” because it is better understood by patients and the public, while “TRE” remains common in academic and cross-sector data-access literature.
What is an NHS SDE?
An NHS SDE is one of the twelve platforms in the NHS Research Secure Data Environment Network — eleven regional SDEs plus one national SDE run by NHS England — that simplify and accelerate approved researchers’ secure access to NHS health and social care data.
How many NHS Secure Data Environments are there?
There are twelve nodes in the NHS Research SDE Network: eleven regional SDEs, including South West, London, West Midlands, Yorkshire & Humber and North West, plus one national SDE operated directly by NHS England.
What this means for institutions and researchers
The regional model gives each SDE room to reflect local geography and partnership history — six ICSs pooling into one West Midlands portal, five London sub-regions coordinating through an IIAG, a Citizens Jury shaping Yorkshire & Humber’s public-engagement approach. That flexibility is a deliberate design choice under the Data Saves Lives strategy, not an implementation gap.
For institutions running multi-region studies, the practical implication is that researcher onboarding time and documentation requirements will vary by region even where the underlying data-protection standard does not. Research offices should treat “apply to the SDE” as a region-specific task, confirm which committee or portal governs the target region before drafting a data-access application, and expect the network to keep converging on more standardised processes as regions such as the North West finalise their published access routes and London’s Analytics Platform reaches full operation.