One month to go: Data Security Toolkit completion underway

With the deadline now imminent, Community Pharmacy England is urging pharmacy owners to take action to complete the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPTK) for 2026 now and reminding them to make use of our resources to work through the process as efficiently as possible.

The DSPTK submission is due by 30th June 2026 as part of a pharmacy’s annual information governance (IG) declaration, and many pharmacy owners are busy working towards completing this. It is a mandatory requirement under the NHS Terms of Service that demonstrates core information governance standards and maintains patient trust.

What you need to know

• What’s changed for 2026: Community Pharmacy England has worked closely with the NHS DSPTK team to ensure the Toolkit remains proportionate and practical, with a small number of targeted updates designed to make completion clearer and quicker.
• Check your Parent Organisation Code (POC) details: Pharmacy owners with three or more pharmacies are advised to check that the list of pharmacies linked to their NHS Parent Organisation Code (POC) is accurate to help avoid delays – and make corrections if needed.
• Reducing workload: Most pharmacy teams should already have access to the information needed to answer the more technical questions and those that have updated their templates in our GDPR Workbook can meet the criteria for around half of the Toolkit questions. More comprehensive guidance is available below.
• Next steps: Log in to the Data Security and Protection Toolkit as soon as possible, follow our “Five steps” overview guide, and ensure all mandatory questions are answered to meet the minimum NHS information governance requirements.

Dan Ah-Thion, Community Pharmacy England’s IT Policy Manager, said:

“Each year we see many pharmacy owners complete the Toolkit well ahead of the deadline, and completion is already underway again this year – it’s been completed at thousands of pharmacies.

Using the question‑by‑question guidance, on-demand webinar and early checks on NHS Parent Organisation Code details, will all help avoid last‑minute pressure.”

Guidance and support from Community Pharmacy England

The following resources are available to support completion of the Toolkit:

Toolkit completion: Overview – five steps for completing the DSP Toolkit 2026
A clear, step by step guide with links to all supporting materials:
Five steps for completing

On‑demand webinar
Community Pharmacy England and the NHS DSPTK team explain the new MFA question, outline other changes, and answer common questions.
On-demand webinar

Question‑by‑question guidance (mandatory questions)
Designed to help pharmacy teams complete all mandatory sections.
Question-by-question guidance

Using the NHS Parent Organisation Code (HQ) batch submission
Guidance for pharmacy owners with three or more pharmacies.
Batch POC guidelines

Tips
Our recent Toolkit reminder had also provided some support on Data Protection Officer, training and spam email topics.