The Commissioning Data Sets (CDS) provide information about NHS provided and NHS funded secondary care activity. As a secondary uses data set, CDS re-uses clinical and operational data for purposes other than direct patient care. It specifies the data items, definitions and associated value sets to be extracted or derived from local information systems.
The data is submitted via NHS Digital’s Secondary Uses Service (SUS), in an XML format, on a weekly, monthly or annual basis, depending on the CDS type.
CDS data is used for a variety of purposes to support the NHS in the delivery of healthcare services, including national reporting through Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and the allocation of payments through the National Tariff Payment System.