A major project to digitise old practice records is about to be launched, it has been revealed.

NHS England is currently seeking the advice of technology companies about the shape of the project, the Health Service Journal reported. It will then seek to procure a supplier in April.

The organisation says the old, paper-based records pose a risk to person-centred care. Each record contains vital information and their security and accuracy “must be preserved,” it says.

Last year NHS England promised to complete digitisation by 2023 – but it says the records exist in “large volume.”

The records are named after the former Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who introduced national health insurance a century ago. Digitisation would require records not just to be scanned but to be indexed to ensure that digital records correctly recorded details such as childhood vaccinations.

The journal quotes a recent comment by health secretary Matt Hancock, who said: “Every time people hear Lloyd George, I want them to think of an admirable leader of the past, not a way to store data in the present.”