Palantir: UK police forces rack up £7.8m on US spy tech

MPs have hit out at the “clear mismatch” between Palantir and “UK values”, but the US spy-tech firm’s capture of public bodies in the UK rolls on. A joint investigation from Good Law Project and Computer Weekly reveals six police forces have processed data with Palantir software, spending £7.8m since 2023.

Documents seen by Good Law Project show that these projects involve, “tracking, monitoring or surveillance”, as well as data on “racial or ethnic origin, political opinions” and even people’s “sex life”.

Last year, Liberty Investigates revealed that Bedfordshire police have teamed up with Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire police to establish a “real-time data sharing network”, powered by Palantir, under an initiative called Project Nectar. In February, the Guardian reported the Metropolitan police are using Palantir tools to monitor staff. And in April the Leicester Gazette published details of an £800,000 contract with Leicestershire police. 

The East Midlands Special Operations Unit – a specialised team that covers five forces in the Midlands and speaks for Leicestershire on Palantir – told Good Law Project they “followed appropriate processes, to secure services to support the delivery of operational policing”.

After at first refusing to answer a freedom of information (FOI) request from Good Law Project last year, Lancashire police have now confirmed that they are also using Palantir tech, bringing the total number of police services who have processed data with the firm’s software to six.

The force signed a contract for “capability development” and “proof of concept” on 5 March 2025, at a cost of £860,420. No minutes were kept by Lancashire police for any meetings which may have discussed this project. Lancashire’s disclosure says the force is using Foundry, the controversial system the NHS is using for the Federated Data Platform (FDP), “to look at opportunities on how these AI driven technologies can assist digital policing”. 

Good Law Project FOIs have also revealed that Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire police are using Foundry as well, with both forces disclosing that they held contracts worth £750,000. However, scrutiny of Bedfordshire’s spend records reveals that the force has spent, so far, at least £2.9m. Agreements with Bedfordshire date back to 2023, according to FOI disclosures to Computer Weekly.

The forces told us the project is processing data from Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and “some collaborated teams”. When we asked Cambridgeshire police, who are merged with Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, they told us they were “aware” of “pilot work” with Palantir in their partner forces.

“Cambridgeshire Constabulary is considering how a similar approach could support our use of data to better serve our communities,” the force said, adding that “this work is ongoing and no decisions have been made.” Bedfordshire police seem in little doubt, telling Good Law Project in an FOI response that “Cambridgeshire will have their own” Palantir contract, and spend records reveal that Cambridgeshire police paid Palantir £11,998 in October 2025 for undisclosed work. 

When we put this to them, Cambridgeshire admitted that in March 2025 they “undertook a limited two-month pilot focused on a specific safeguarding function, for which a short-term contract was put in place at a cost of £11,998”. The force insisted this was “exploratory in nature, time-limited, and did not represent a wider implementation of Palantir technology by the constabulary”.

Internal Bedfordshire police memos seen by Computer Weekly admit that there is a “medium risk” that the system will potentially process data for purposes that are neither proportionate or necessary.

According to a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) seen by Good Law Project and Computer Weekly, one of the data sources integrated into Bedfordshire’s Palantir project is Athena – a data sharing system which covers nine forces: Kent, Essex, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Warwickshire, and West Mercia police. The DPIA declares that data “recorded on existing platforms like Athena” will be used to “populate content in applications developed on the Foundry platform”.

Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Cambridgeshire forces are part of the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU), also consisting of Essex, Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk police. In a response to Good Law Project and Computer Weekly questions, Bedfordshire confirmed that seconded officers from other forces in ERSOU “may be provided access to Nectar applications using role-based access control in accordance with information security and access management policies and procedures”.

A DPIA for Palantir’s contract to keep track of officers in the Met, seen by Good Law Project and first reported by Computer Weekly, raises further questions. This deal was signed for £489,999, falling just below the £500,000 threshold for scrutiny from the mayor’s office. In an echo of tactics used by the spy-tech firm to gain a foothold in the NHS, this contract was initially extended for two weeks “at no additional cost”, but has now been granted a further extension of another 12 months for a further £1.9m. 

The assessment declares that the project processes personal data “on a large scale” and will “involve tracking, monitoring or surveillance of individuals in areas accessible to the public”. It will include a wide range of sensitive data, including “racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, health data, data relating to a person’s sex life, data relating to a person’s sexual orientation, and criminal convictions or offences”.

Good Law Project’s assessment of the document also highlights that the ethical review has not been completed, and that the “necessity and impact on privacy of the data processing is currently being assessed”. Only “some” data handling meets legal standards, it adds, concluding that criteria to assess accuracy, relevance, and bias minimisation are currently being “developed and documented”.

In May, the London mayor Sadiq Khan blocked a £50m contract between Palantir and the Met, raising “serious concerns” about the deal. But the firm’s ambitions in UK policing are even broader. 

Louis Mosley, Palantir’s UK chief, told the Telegraph last year that the firm is working with almost a dozen UK police forces, though many still refuse to confirm working with Palantir, and last month Computer Weekly revealed plans for nationwide intelligence and digital forensics sharing between 50 law enforcement agencies. This “centralised data infrastructure” is designed to support “cross-force, cross-system data sharing” and is expected to cost between £75m and £250m over five years. And Palantir’s Foundry is one of the potential systems cited in the planning documents.

Duncan McCann, Good Law Project’s tech and data lead, believes police forces are tight-lipped about using Palantir software because of the “flaws and inherent dangers” in Palantir’s tech.

“Palantir’s systems depend on bringing together vast quantities of data,” McCann said, “and unless great care is taken in cleaning that data, biases which put people at risk are baked in”, adding that “gathering different datasets into one place paves the way for authoritarian surveillance and control.”

And the MP for Newton Abbott, Martin Wrigley, echoes his concerns.

“We are in a very dangerous world,” Wrigley said, “where these tools are followed up without sufficient process around them, and without sufficient data protection around them.”

Palantir did not respond to a request for comment.