Medical and legal rights campaigners are warning that the Palantir data platform, designed to be at the heart of England’s health system, risks enabling UK immigration and policing departments to access confidential patient information.
Palantir has denied the Federated Data Platform (FDP) could be used in this way under the current legislation, and said using the system as the campaign groups described would breach its contract with NHS England.
The report that made the claim is written by medical campaign group Medact and endorsed by legal campaigner the Good Law Project, Privacy International, Just Treatment, Corporate Watch, United Tech, Allied Workers Union, and is supported by Amnesty International.
It argues the FDP contract, awarded to Palantir for £330 million in November 2023 for seven years, could, by bringing together disparate health datasets onto a single platform run by Palantir, enable UK government departments to move sensitive information around.
“The FDP contains highly sensitive health data, which also needs to be protected from the UK government itself… Bringing together disparate health datasets onto a single platform run by Palantir could enable UK government departments, such as the Home Office and police departments, to more easily access confidential patient information,” the report asserted.
It noted how Palantir is used by other governments, including by the controversial US immigration agency ICE. The report argued there is evidence of “significant cross-department data compiling and analysis, which can be used to enable data-driven abuses of state power.”
“We raise concerns that a current or future government could abuse the data held in the FDP by utilizing the interoperability of Foundry and its ability to draw from other government datasets,” the report added.
A spokesperson for Palantir said: “Palantir software is playing an important role in improving patient care – helping to deliver 100,000 additional operations, a 12 percent reduction in discharge delays, and the removal of 675,000 patients from waiting lists.
“How that software is used is entirely under the control of the NHS with data only able to be processed in accordance with their strict instructions. Not only do we have no intention of and no means of using the data in the way that the Medact report is suggesting, to do so would be illegal and in breach of contract.”
Medact said its report is designed to prepare NHS organizations including Trust Boards, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), Health Scrutiny Committees, and Health Data Governance Committees for the rollout of the FDP in the NHS across England and said it outlines key concerns regarding the involvement of Palantir Technologies in NHS data infrastructure and operations.
“It is intended to inform and empower Trust decision-making about engagement with Palantir. At the time of writing, the FDP is not mandatory, and local health bodies are able to both raise concerns and decline to implement the FDP at the local level. It is the view of the authors, endorsers and supporters that, for the reasons explained in this document, there are many more suitable options for data management solutions for Trusts and ICBs,” it said.
The Register asked NHS England to comment.
In November last year, Manchester ICB put off adopting the FDP for a second time. Responsible for the health services for 2.8 million people, the board said in May last year that NHS England had not addressed its concerns around risks.
An earlier report to the board by chief intelligence and analytics officer Matt Hennessey found Manchester’s local capacity in data analytics “exceeds anything the FDP currently offers and that some of the capabilities we currently have actively in use… are around two to three years away from being fully operational with the FDP environment.”
In May last year, an NHS England spokesperson said: “The Federated Data Platform (FDP) is already delivering for the NHS – helping to join up patient care, increase hospital productivity and ensure thousands of additional patients can be treated each month. More than 120 NHS trusts have signed up to use the platform, including 84 percent of hospital trusts, and 72 are already live as part of a phased rollout to provide better care and services for patients.” ®