NHSE to investigate Palantir for possible breach of FDP contract
- 8 January 2024
NHS England (NHSE) will investigate whether US data analytics giant Palantir violated the terms of its contract to run the Federated Data Platform (FDP) by launching a covert influencer campaign targeting legal transparency non-profit Good Law Project.
Good Law Project said on its website Saturday that Palantir “was required but failed to seek prior approval from NHSE for its campaign to promote its contract to run the FDP and brief against Good Law Project”.
Bloomberg reported late Friday that NHSE would investigate whether Palantir violated the contract terms just weeks after signing it.
An NHS spokesperson said: “We are looking into this matter. NHS England takes any potential breach of contract by any supplier or other contractual partner seriously – where evidence of a potential breach is presented to us, we investigate and take any necessary action.”
On December 22, NHSE published a heavily redacted version of its 586-page contract with US data giant Palantir to operate the new Federated Data Platform, which blocks out significant parts of the content, including most of the information under the heading “protection of personal data”.
On the same day that the redacted contract was published the Good Law Project said leaked emails showed Palantir had hired PR agency Topham Guerin to pay influencers to attack Good Law Project on social media.
The non-profit said the approaches to social media influencers were made at arms-length, with the briefing asking influencers not to mention Palantir in their content.
But Good Law Project noted in its statement that one of the non-redacted parts of the contract, covering ‘Publicity and Branding’, states that Palantir is not permitted to use the Authority’s name or brand in any marketing or publicise the contract without the prior written consent of NHS England.
“It’s alarming that Palantir might have breached its contract with NHS England, just weeks after signing it,” Good Law Project Legal Manager Ian Browne told Digital Health. “Even worse, it was to attempt to launder its reputation, after Good Law Project had been questioning Palantir’s suitability to run the Federated Data Platform due to its troubling history.“We welcome NHS England’s confirmation that it will now investigate the matter.“We have also been raising concerns about how the lack of transparency over the handling of patient data could get worse now Palantir is at the helm of the FDP. And these concerns have already been validated by the fact that page after page of the contract – including an important section on the protection of personal data – is so heavily redacted that it is impossible to scrutinise.”
After multiple delays of its announcement, NHSE awarded the £330 million FDP contract to Palantir in late November. The contract award will extend over the course of seven years as more trusts join the platform, with investment of at least £25.6 million expected in the first contract year.
5 Comments
Are there any rules on what can – and cannot – be redacted when the details of a Public Contract are published, & who makes the decision on what to redact?
One of the concerns about the FDP was the protection of personal data, so the redaction of the section on this is concerning – especialy seeing the records of both parties to the deal. Surely this is a point where publishing the details might provide clarification, even reassurance – so why has it been redacted?
Some personal data *is* needed for waiting list management: but not much!
Still don’t know why this is related to whether NHS staff are ever sacked or not (hint: they are).
Why is anyone surprised! Palantir is a semi covert multi national who works for the US Defence & Spy Agencies. It’s about time our government realises that American multinationals & US Government only operate to benefit themselves, they are after all capitalists.
This is the organisation that in my lifetime seems to have never sacked anyone, ever, for anything, including Beverly Allot and Lucy Letby the child murderers.
I think we should give Palantir a chance. The status Quo is dire.
Neither Allot nor Letby worked for NHS England – they worked for different NHS Trusts.
Have you fallen for the myth propagated by the right wing press that “the NHS” is a single monolithic organisation?
It was fatally fragmented by Major when NHS Trusts were invented, then further fragmented by Lansley and Cameron under the top down reorganisation that the Tories promised wouldn’t happen in their campaigning for the 2010 election.
How strange that a supplier associated with neocon politics in the US became an incumbent supplier without competition during Covid by a neocon UK government and then landed this lucrative contract.
Redacting sections of the contract should be pointless if the system requirements on which the contracts must be based are in the public domain.
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