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Article History

Received: 14 February 2025

Accepted: 20 June 2025

First Online: 19 July 2025

Declarations

:

: This project was commissioned by the NHS Breast Screening Programme as a service evaluation aimed at measuring patient views towards their access to standard care delivered within the National Breast Screening Service. The UK Health Research Authority, which oversees ethical approval for all research involving NHS patients, does not consider this to be research. This is based on the fact that participants were not randomised and did not have any change in their treatment, and we were not aiming to generate generalisable findings. Because the work was defined as service evaluation, not research, it was considered exempt from the need for NHS ethical approval. Having completed the online tools based on the HRA definitions of research () to confirm this, and discussing it within the project team, we completed a Data Protection Impact Assessment, and fully anonymous data were transferred from the NHS to Queen Mary University of London under a data transfer agreement. Participants were able to opt out by ignoring the invitation to complete the survey.In line with recommendations for service evaluations issued by the UK Health Research Agency, consent to participate was implied through completion of the survey. The data were fully anonymous, and the survey instructions explained that the dataset would be transferred to Queen Mary University of London for analysis. Information regarding data privacy and use was provided at the end of the survey and linked to the NHS privacy notice and data analytics (). This states that data gathered may be used to facilitate any of its statutory functions and duties as described in the NHS Act 2006 including improvement in quality of services and reducing inequalities.Our study adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki.

: Not applicable.

: JJ, JC, SW and EO are all employed by the NHSE.