- The UK government could end the Palantir NHS contract early
- MPs strongly opposed the company’s contract over data protection and ethical concerns
- A break clause could cause the contract to expire in early 2027
The UK government is considering activating a break clause in Palantir’s £330m contract with the NHS.
The controversial US analytics and monitoring technology company was 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 seen widespread opposition due to concerns about Palantir’s reputation, ethical concerns and concerns about providing the company with highly sensitive information about millions of Britons.
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Widespread resistance
“The current contract provides a subscription service that leaves no post-subscription deliverables – no software, no enhancements and no intellectual property after spending more than £330m,” Liberal Democrat MP Martin Wrigley said ahead of a debate in Westminster. He also stated that he had evidence to suggest that staff find the FDP terrible to use and that it only benefits a quarter of its user organisations.
“All the custom software and intellectual property rights belong to the supplier,” the contract states. “All rights to any know-how are expressly retained by the supplier and not transferred upon termination of the contract. The contract provides no software – not a line – only a subscription service; a permanent lock-in; a single point of failure,” Wrigley continued. “Palantir is not only the wrong technical solution; NHS users report it is terrible to use.”
Zubir Ahmed MP, junior minister for the Department of Health and Social Care, has said the break clause, which could end the seven-year contract in early 2027, is being weighed 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 break clause, we evaluate and find out that there are other providers who can do the job better, then of course it must be looked at and reflected on,” he said.
Why the dispute?
Palantir has come under fire 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 using medical data.
Palantir staff have also reportedly been given NHS.net email accounts, giving them access to a database containing the personal details of over 1.5 million NHS staff.
Palantir’s UK vice-chairman 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 has 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 more concerns about the company’s access to sensitive information.
Via The register
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