claim: The Department of Health (England) needs the consent of families to release information of deceased relatives.
evidence: - Access to records of deceased people: People may request access to the records of someone who has died, for example a family member. See the NHS Transformation Directorate guidance on Access to the health and care records of deceased people and Primary Care Support England also has guidance on their website about Accessing Medical Records. [...] Data protection laws do not apply to deceased people, but the common law duty of confidentiality does apply. For more information, please see NHS England’s Transformation Directorate guidance on access to the health and care records of deceased people. [...] For more information, please see the guidance on consent and confidential patient information, sharing information with confidence and the article in these Guidelines on consent to using and sharing patient information.