KONP letter to MPs re Palantir contract
Please send using ‘Write to them’: https://www.writetothem.com/
I am sure you are aware of Palantir’s controversial contract to supply software for the NHS Federated Data Platform and act as a data processor for our data. Both the Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee and the Health and Social Care Committee have advised against letting this contract continue. Recently, the National Data Guardian for Health and Social Care also wrote to ministers and expressed grave doubts over the contract, listing three major concerns: a lack of public and professional trust; the absence of clear, objective evidence of the platform’s benefits and limitations; and problems with interoperability, vendor lock-in, and data sovereignty.
Please do what you can to ensure that the Government does not renew the contract, up to and including 31 December, after which it will enter an exit process and end on 31 March 2027. I am particularly concerned that the Government may issue a renewal over the Christmas period.
Palantir was due to submit an “exit plan” by 30 September, and NHS England is to respond by 28 October. If needed, disagreements on the plan can go to a Dispute Resolution Procedure. If NHS England then renews the contract by 31 December, it will proceed to the next two-year segment; otherwise, it will enter the agreed exit process.
You may find these recent press reports useful (see below). I hope you can pursue this issue.
FT: NHS hospitals admit to errors in data used to defend Palantir contract
FT: Over 20 NHS Trusts have ditched Palantir waiting-list tools
FT: GP data quietly added to Palantir’s NHS data platform
NHS ‘in a great place to ditch Palantir’ despite health minister’s claim
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