Use the Break Clause and End Palantir’s Contract

Early next year, the Government has a crucial decision to make: whether to extend or end Palantir’s contract with NHS England.

My position is clear, the Government should use the break clause and find a UK-based and UK-owned alternative to deliver the NHS’s Federated Data Platform (FDP).

Over the past two weeks, many of you have contacted me with concerns about Palantir’s growing role in our NHS and what this could mean for our health service and patient data.

From the opaque procurement process and the Government’s £1.7bn overestimation of the FDP’s value, to the findings of multiple cross-party committee reports, there is “serious mistrust” and an “unacceptable point of weakness” in the company’s encroaching presence in the UK’s public sector.

Ultimately, the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee report and the Health and Social Care Committee evidence session both point in the same direction: the Government should use the break clause and look for an alternative.

And just in recent days, reporting has shown that uptake among NHS trusts that are publicly listed as “realising benefits” from the (FDP) is lower than expected. For something like this to work, patients and NHS professionals need to have confidence in it. If that trust has been eroded, or was never there in the first place, that is a serious problem.

As I wrote earlier this year, this is a matter of sovereignty and transparency. On both counts, this contract falls short. Patients need to know their health data is being properly protected, and there must be clear safeguards over how it can be used.

I have taken action in Parliament to amplify the concerns many of you have shared with me:

• In recent days I signed a cross-party letter to the Health Secretary, urging the government to retender the FDP contract. 

• I have written to the Financial Conduct Authority to express deep concerns about Palantir. 

• I have submitted a number of parliamentary written questions pushing for accountability over patient data access, privacy safeguards, the National Data Opt-Out, and wider governance of the FDP. 

• I have supported amendments to the Health Bill to retender the NHS FDP contract, strengthen NHS data privacy, and protect public ownership of key health infrastructure.

• I have also signed EDM 2868 calling for greater transparency and the development of British-based alternatives.

There’s no question that the NHS needs to modernise its technology. Many staff feel they’re “operating in the stone age” with outdated technology not working or muddled patient records making it harder for already stretched staff to give patients the care they need.

As Lord Darzi’s investigation highlighted, after over a decade of being “starved of capital” by the Conservatives, our NHS “urgently needs the benefits of digital systems.”

But modernising the NHS does not mean we simply have to accept the current contract with Palantir.

Before the initial three-year term is complete, the Government has an opportunity to change course, use the break clause, and back a UK-owned and UK-based alternative that NHS staff and patients can have confidence in.