MPs call for government to kick Palantir out of the NHS

An influential parliamentary committee has delivered a damning verdict on Palantir, branding the company an “unacceptable point of weakness” in the public sector and calling on the government to end the NHS contract with the US spy-tech firm.

In a substantial report (PDF) examining the government’s plans to make the UK a “digital state”, MPs on the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee concluded that “Palantir’s increasing presence across the public sector represents an unacceptable point of weakness”.

“The government should retain the ability to pick and choose individual suppliers,” the report said, “and safeguard against the risk of vendor lock-in and debilitating dependencies, particularly in areas of critical national importance such as healthcare and national security infrastructure.”

The committee highlighted Palantir’s contracts with US military and immigration services, where it has supported “highly controversial policies and activities”, as well as co-founder Peter Thiel’s hostility to the NHS and the company’s “explicitly political manifesto” – evidence of “a clear mismatch with UK values”.

And they went on to recommend that the government pulls out of the firm’s £330m data contract with the NHS.

“The government should commit to exercising the February 2027 break clause in the Federated Data Platform contract,” the report added, “and either develop an in-house replacement or seek an alternative developed by UK-owned and UK-based providers that are more compatible with UK values, and do not pursue either technical or contractual dependencies.”

The report also calls for the government to reveal why the Ministry of Defence handed Palantir a £240m contract “without a competitive tender process”, argues that ministers should use UK suppliers for the proposed NHS single patient record and declares it would be “irresponsible to roll out a digital ID built on the UK’s current digital infrastructure”.

According to the committee’s chair, Dame Chi Onwurah MP, the government must reduce “the UK’s dependence on a small number of big US tech companies like Palantir”.

“Vendor lock-in isn’t inevitable”, Onwurah said, “and the current position leaves us seriously exposed.”

For the MP Martin Wrigley, who also serves on the committee, contradictions in Palantir’s evidence show they are an “unreliable partner”.

“All too often the easy choice is seen as carrying on,” Wrigley said. “In this case the cost of inaction is more than the cost of carrying on.”

Good Law Project has been warning of the dangers Palantir poses since 2023, making the case for a data revolution in the NHS that puts patients at its heart. More than 79,000 supporters have joined us to say no to the spy-tech firm in the NHS.

For Duncan McCann, Good Law Project’s data and tech lead, the report is a “wake-up call the government can’t ignore”.

“The committee has laid bare how ministers have fallen for Palantir’s pitch,” McCann said. “Their software may be 10 times slower than NHS alternatives, but their lobbying is second to none. It’s time for the health secretary to put together a fully costed plan to kick this spy-tech firm out of the NHS, and invest in home-grown digital technology that puts citizens first.”