Tag: Palantir

Good Law Project sues NHS over Palantir contract

Posted on February 21, 2024 by - News

The Good Law Project (GLP) has taken NHS England to court over its dodgy deal with US spooks Palantir.

The contract, worth a whopping £330 million, gives the firm access to the new Federated Data Platform (FDP), which supposedly links up patient data across the NHS.

But the contract, reluctantly published by the government in December, is full of blacked-out bits. The GLP claims that 417 out of 586 pages have been obliterated, leaving more blanks than a crossword puzzle in a power cut.

“We think this is not only outrageous, but illegal. Government policy says public bodies have to explain why they redact contracts, but despite the huge amount of ink used on Palantir’s contract, no reasons have been given,” GLP said.

“We have now sued NHS England to reveal what they are hiding.”

Palantir’s NHS data sharing deal faces court action

Posted on December 4, 2023 by - News

Campaigners have launched legal action to halt a data-sharing deal between the NHS and Palantir.

For those who came in late, Palantir scored a £330 million contract with the NHS to create and operate a Federated Data Platform (FDP) to streamline information sharing among health service trusts and integrated care systems.

The FDP aims to improve service efficiency and address the 7.8 million patient backlog of care hospitals face, enabling them to discharge patients more efficiently.

However, the contract award is a little bit risky as it is giving a ton of UK data to a company which is rather too friendly with the US military.

While Palantir won’t own the data and requires NHS permission for access, campaign groups, including legal organisation Foxglove, are sceptical of the company’s track record.

NHS contract appears to have gone to Palantir

Posted on November 13, 2023 by - News

The UK government has quietly awarded big data analytics firm Palantir a £0.5 billion contract to create an NHS patient data platform.

Health news website Digital Health said that the contract for the Federated Data Platform has been awarded to Palantir but failed to give any sources.

Digital Health reported that Ming Tang, chief data and analytics officer for NHS England, told health IT experts at an event last week that the procurement was complete, but the sign-off was with ministers.

The contract is is controversial because the contract had been rumoured to have been given to the controversial company for several months before the procurement process had been completed.

Even now an NHS spokesperson insists that NHS England is still in a procurement process and will make an announcement in due course.

NHS England needs to address bidding process

Posted on August 31, 2023 by - News

NHS England needs to address growing public concern about the £480 million contract to operate its Federated Data Platform (FDP), according to the National Data Guardian for Health and Social Care.

Writing in her bog, Dr Nicola Byrne said she wants to address growing public concerns about NHS England’s FDP contract “so that it does not lose public support and so that planning and research do not suffer.”

Byrne said NHS England gave her a high-level communications plan last week and said the Professional Record Standards Body will be engaged to help design the FDP.

Spy outfit went direct to get government to buy software

Posted on August 10, 2023 by - News

US spy tech outfit Palantir directly contacted the minister of state for disabled people, health and work, Tom Pursglove in a bid to get him to buy technology to crack down on benefits fraud.

For those who came in late, Palantir, was founded by PayPal co-founder and Trump supporter Peter Thiel.  It wrote to Pursglove in April to brief him on its technology, promising that it could help the Department for Work and Pensions to “recover large amounts of fraud.”

According to emails seen by The Guardian after a Freedom of Information request, Palantir attached a note trying to arrange a meeting with Pursglove or his team “to explore whether this capability could be of benefit here in the UK.”

UK governments opens contract for NHS

Posted on January 12, 2023 by - News

The UK government has advertised an official contract for a federated data platform (FDP) for NHS England. The contract is valued at £360 million.

The contract has  an estimated value of up to £480 million over the five-years. Tenders are invited from pre-qualified suppliers after a discussion of requirements and potential solutions.

The data platform will be owned and controlled by the NHS and will use NHS data to understand patterns, solve problems, plan services for local populations and ultimately transform the health and care of the people they serve.