To ask the Minister of Health to outline (i) the current capability of encompass to produce clinical, operational and financial audit reports; and (ii) what additional financial investment or system development would be required to ensure encompass can fully support comprehensive audit and assurance functions across the health service.

The encompass system is a key component of Northern Ireland’s digital health transformation, aimed at improving clinical, operational, and financial oversight across the health and social care service. In addition to the data and tools for analytics in support of comprehensive audit within encompass, the Northern Ireland Health Analytics Platform (NIHAP) and the Patient Level Information Costing System (PLICS) continue to develop analytical capabilities, bringing together datasets that are not in encompass, alongside encompass data.

While encompass provides a strong foundation for audit, development is ongoing in partnership with HSC Trust, DoH-SPPG and PHA partners to introduce additional clinical Key Performance Indicators and reporting and assurance capabilities. Additional training for staff and managers to support them in the best use of the data and tools available in encompass is ongoing, now all HSC Trusts are live and stabilising.

Additional investment may be required in future to avail of technological advances and fully leverage AI, this will be subject to additional business case and approval processes.