# The Health and Social Care Act 2012 (Consistent Identifier) Regulations 2015, Regulation 2: Consistent identifier


(1) For the purposes of section 251A (consistent identifiers) of the Act the NHS Number is specified as a consistent identifier.
(2) In this regulation–
(a) “NHS Number” means the number, consisting of 10 numeric digits, which serves as the national unique identifier used for the purpose of safely, accurately and efficiently sharing information relating to a registered patient across the whole of the health service in England;
(b) “the health service” has the meaning given in section 275 (index of defined expressions) of the National Health Service Act 2006.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/1439/regulation/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/health-and-social-care-act-2012-consistent-identifier-regulations-2015/regulation-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.