FOI – 2025-3165 Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI) System (HTML)

Date received – 06 November 2025 | Date responded – 03 December 2025

Request

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

I am requesting information relating to the Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI) system used within NHS Scotland. Specifically, I request:

• Contracts, procurement notices, award letters, or commercial agreements relating to the EMPI programme, including but not limited to arrangements involving:
• Wipro (as referenced in 2017 announcements relating to EMPI development),
• NextGate,
• And Rhapsody / Lyniate (as referenced in 2023–2024 reports regarding EMPI deployment and Azure hosting).
  The total contract value(s) for the above, including any amendments, extensions, or change notices.
  The planned and actual implementation timeline, including any key milestones recorded.
  Context and Prior Research
  To avoid requesting information already available publicly, I have reviewed:
• The Open Contracting Data publication for NSS procurement (https://data.open-contracting.org/en/publication/39), which appears to contain contracts only from 2019 onward and therefore does not include earlier EMPI contracting.
• Public procurement portals and published award notices.
• Public news releases, including:
• The 2017 announcement regarding
• Wipro developing a next-generation EMPI for NHS Scotland,
• 2023–2024 reports describing deployment of a Rhapsody EMPI solution hosted on Microsoft Azure,
• References to NextGate technology used in earlier EMPI architecture.

I am also aware of the Scottish procurement transparency requirement that contracts valued above £50,000 must be published, which is why I am seeking clarification on where these EMPI-related contract documents are held.

Response

I refer to your freedom of information request that we received on 06 November 2025.

We have now completed the search of our records and can provide you with the following information:

• Contracts, procurement notices, award letters, or commercial agreements relating to the EMPI programme, including but not limited to arrangements involving:
• Wipro (as referenced in 2017 announcements relating to EMPI development),
• NextGate,
• And Rhapsody / Lyniate (as referenced in 2023–2024 reports regarding EMPI deployment and Azure hosting).

Under Section 33(1)(b) (Commercial interests and the economy) of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act, 2002 (FOISA), NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) have determined that some of the information requested is exempt under the Act, specifically award letters or commercial agreements. This exemption applies where disclosure of the information would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any person or organisation, including public authorities. In this case, releasing the information could:

• Undermine the competitive position of the organisation(s) concerned.
• Reveal commercially sensitive strategies, pricing, or operational details.
• Harm ongoing or future negotiations or contracts.

We recognise that there is a public interest in transparency and accountability. However, on balance, we consider that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosure, due to the potential for substantial harm to commercial interests.

What we can provide you with is the attached contract notice, Appendix 1 – NP503816 Mainframe Solutions Transformation Programme. This information is also publicly available and can be found here: View Contract - Public Contracts Scotland.

Under Section 15 (Duty to provide advice and assistance) of FOISA, NSS can confirm the contract between NSS and the supplier Wipro was awarded in February 2017. The contract was for the implementation, rollout and business as usual support of eMPI to replace CHI. The supplier began implementation in January 2020 and New CHI/eMPI went into business as usual in January 2024. The support and maintenance element of the contract is for 12 years. Wipro used NextGate as a sub-contractor to supply and develop the software to implement eMPI. During implementing eMPI, Lyniate acquired NextGate and later Lyniate changed its name to Rhapsody.

• The total contract value(s) for the above, including any amendments, extensions, or change notices.

The total final value of the contract published within the contract notice is £19,114,000.

• The planned and actual implementation timeline, including any key milestones recorded.
• Context and Prior Research.

Under Section 17(1) (Notice that information is not held) of FOISA, an organisation does not have to provide that information if it does not hold it. NSS do not hold the requested information.

• I am also aware of the Scottish procurement transparency requirement that contracts valued above £50,000 must be published, which is why I am seeking clarification on where these EMPI-related contract documents are held.

All NSS contracts/frameworks are publicly available to search at the following: Public Contracts Scotland & Find a tender service.

I trust you will find the information of assistance and if you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of how we have dealt with your request, you can make representations to us asking us to review the handling of your request.

If you require any further information, please contact the Associate Director Governance and Board Services (Board Secretary) within 40 working days of the date of this correspondence.

Contact

Address

If after a review you are still unhappy, you also have the right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner, who can be contacted at Kinburn Castle, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS, or via their application form.

National Services Scotland (NSS) is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. You can view all FOI responses within our FOI Publications repository.