- UK government could end Palantir’s NHS contract early
- MPs widely oppose company contract over data protection issues and ethical concerns
- Termination clause could see contract end in early 2027
The UK government is considering triggering a termination clause in Palantir’s £330m contract with the NHS.
The controversial US surveillance and analytics technology company has been awarded the contract to provide the NHS with the Federated Data Platform (FDP), a centralized hub for NHS staff and patient data.
However, the FDP has faced widespread opposition due to concerns around Palantir’s reputation, ethical concerns and concerns about providing the company with highly sensitive information on millions of Britons.
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Widespread opposition
“The current contract offers a subscription service that leaves no results after subscription – no software, no upgrades, no intellectual property after spending more than £330 million,” Liberal Democrat MP Martin Wrigley said ahead of a debate in Westminster. It also claimed it had evidence to suggest that staff found the FDP terrible to use and that it only benefits a quarter of its user organisations.
“All specially written software and intellectual property rights belong to the supplier, the contract says. All rights to any know-how are explicitly retained by the supplier and are not transferred upon termination of the contract. The contract does not deliver any software, not a line, only a subscription service; a permanent lock; a single point of failure,” Wrigley continued. “Palantir isn’t just the wrong technical solution; NHS users report it’s terrible to use.”
Deputy Zubir Ahmed, assistant minister at the Department of Health and Social Care, said a termination clause, which could end the seven-year contract in early 2027, is being considered as a possible option.
“My north star is always patient safety and quality and of course value for money. If, at the time of the termination clause, we evaluate and find that there are other providers who can do the job better, then of course that needs to be looked at and thought about,” he said.
Why the controversy?
Palantir has been criticized for its involvement in supplying the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency with its ImmigrationOS software, which helps identify suspected illegal immigrants and track them in near real time, sometimes with the help of medical data.
Palantir staff have also allegedly been provided with NHS.net email accounts, giving them access to a database containing the personal information of more than 1.5 million NHS employees.
Palantir’s UK executive vice president, Louis Mosley, previously said: “We have no interest in patient data in the UK,” in response to criticism from UK MPs about the company’s reputation.
Palantir also won a pilot contract with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to analyze highly sensitive financial regulatory data with the aim of rooting out fraud and financial crime, raising further concerns about the company’s access to sensitive information.
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