National Postmortem Toxicology Database: privacy notice

This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about people who have died and have also had the presence of psychoactive drugs confirmed by a postmortem toxicological test commissioned by a coroner. It may be of interest to people at risk of drug-related death or the families of people who have died.

This data is being collected for the National Postmortem Toxicology Database which is managed by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), part of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Laboratories that conduct postmortem toxicology analysis can send the results of individual toxicology analyses to OHID if psychoactive drugs were found to be present. They can do this where coroners have given them permission to do so. OHID then collects these results into the National Postmortem Toxicology Database and analyses them to monitor and report on drug-related deaths trends.

The privacy notice includes details on:

• what we do with your information
• how we protect your information and keep it secure
• how to contact us or make a complaint

The information we collect from relevant toxicological tests will help us to:

• identify and respond to dangerous drug incidents
• monitor trends in drug misuse deaths
• improve the reporting of drug misuse deaths