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Article History

Received: 20 October 2022

Accepted: 28 April 2023

First Online: 22 May 2023

Declarations

:

: The study was reviewed by the head of the UKHSA Research Ethics and Governance Group (REGG) (UKHSA Research and Science Cell, Institutional Review Board number NR0351) in September 2021. As the study exclusively involved participants by virtue of their professional roles and was not asking questions to collect personal or identifiable information or asking questions that could cause participants anxiety, it was decided that the study posed a negligible risk to participants. We were advised that, by virtue of this work sitting more closely within the remits of a service evaluation, and that since the survey exclusively involved participants by virtue of their professional roles, and as the study was not asking questions that collect personal or identifiable information, or that could cause participants anxiety, an ethical review of the project was not required. The survey was designed so that it was not possible to identify individuals and results were aggregated. The study was conducted in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations under permissions granted to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA, formerly Public Health England) under Regulation 3 of The Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2020 and under Sect. 251 of the NHS Act 2006 (United Kingdom legislation). Specifically, all data were collected within the statutory approvals granted to the UKHSA for infectious disease surveillance and control. Information was held securely and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 (United Kingdom legislation) and Caldicott Principles (UK, ).Informed consent was obtained from the participants in the survey. The participants were informed of the study purpose, risks, how risks were mitigated, and benefits. On the first page of the questionnaire, potential participants were informed of the title of the questionnaire and its purpose, which was to help to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 surveillance outputs produced by the Outbreak Surveillance team at the UKHSA. These outputs were used by the participants in the survey when undertaking their professional roles in the management of the COVID-19 outbreak. Participants were informed of the benefits that they would derive from their involvement. Participation would allow them to have a say in the format of future surveillance outputs. These outputs could be updated to meet their needs more effectively and ensure appropriate allocation of resources going forward. Participants were informed that the survey would take ten minutes of their time to complete. They were informed that their data would be held securely and that the survey results would be anonymised. They were provided with contact details in case they had any further questions about the survey. Participation in the study was voluntary and, for practicality, a method of implied consent was utilised when recovering responses from participants who decided to take part in the study. A separate consent document was not requested from the participants.

: Not applicable.

: None declared.