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Commissioning Data Sets

Commissioning Data Sets are patient level data sets intended to deliver robust, comprehensive, nationally consistent and comparable person-based information on hospital activity to support a variety of secondary use purposes.

About this standard

Publisher
NHS Digital
Publication date
15 June 2021
Status
Awaiting approval
Show definitions of statuses

Active. Active standards are stable, maintained and have been approved, assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.

Deprecated Deprecated standards are available for use and are maintained, but are being phased out, so new functionality will not be added.

Retired standards Retired standards are not being maintained or supported and should not be used.

Contact point

enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk

Using this standard

Associated medias
Impacts on
Implementation of this information standard impacts all health IT systems suppliers providing systems to the above providers; suppliers should work with their customers to determine necessary changes.

Review Information

Scope
NHS Services
Sponsor
  • Ming Tang

  • National Director

  • Data and Analytics

  • NHS England and NHS Improvement

Senior Responsible Officer

Andrew Jackson, Director of Performance Information, Performance Analysis Team, NHS England and NHS Improvement

Business Lead
  • Thomas Latham
  • Dataset Maintenance Operational Delivery Manager
  • NHS Digital
Approval date
8 June 2021
Post Implementation review Date
30 September 2023

More information

The Commissioning Data Sets (CDS) provide information about NHS provided and NHS funded secondary care activity. As a secondary uses data set, CDS re-uses clinical and operational data for purposes other than direct patient care. It specifies the data items, definitions and associated value sets to be extracted or derived from local information systems. The data is submitted via NHS Digital’s Secondary Uses Service (SUS), in an XML format, on a weekly, monthly or annual basis, depending on the CDS type. CDS data is used for a variety of purposes to support the NHS in the delivery of healthcare services, including national reporting through Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and the allocation of payments through the National Tariff Payment System.

Page last updated: 09 May 2025