UK to rethink tech buying after Palantir contracts

The UK government has promised a different approach to tech procurement following the award of controversial contracts to Palantir.

Speaking to MPs, science minister Patrick Vallance said that the government's deals with Palantir – which has large contracts with the NHS and the Ministry of Defence – would be done differently in the future, instead emphasizing investment in UK technology and companies.

Addressing the NHS contract, he said: "The Palantir contract was made under the previous government and it is under a different Department. I cannot comment on the details of that, but I hope I have been clear in describing a very different way of doing contracts: putting British companies there and procuring innovation here."

Appearing before the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, Lord Vallance said: "I have described how I want to change things going forward in terms of domestic [policy]; in terms of Palantir, I think that is a matter for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). It is a contract with DHSC, and if there are issues around that, they are the ones that need to look at that. I cannot."

However, he was pressed by the committee on whether the government could seek an early break in the contract, according to the terms laid out when it was signed. Committee member and Liberal Democrat MP Martin Wrigley said: "These are existing contracts with break points, so the break points must be exploited to move to UK solutions – sovereign solutions – otherwise we just continue doing the same stuff."

Lord Vallance responded: "We are not continuing. We are doing something very different."

Palantir began as a spy-tech firm with backing from the CIA and heavily supports the controversial US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. It signed a contract with NHS England in late 2023 under the previous Conservative government.

NHS England's public announcement in 2023 said the £330 million investment in the Federated Data Platform (FDP) and associated services contract had been won by Palantir with support from Accenture, PwC, NECS, and Carnall Farrar, and would last seven years.

However, the official contract award notice said the contract was set at £182.2 million and would end in February 2027. An earlier separate notice gave the same value, with an option to extend for two years and then two separate single years.

• Pentagon AI chief praises Palantir tech for speeding battlefield strikes

• Campaigners claim NHS Palantir system could be accessed by police and immigration

• Palantir's lethal AI weaponry deployed to find chairs for US government staff

• Palantir spent $25M on CEO flights so Alex Karp could do all the talking

NHS England argued the FDP would join up key information currently held in separate NHS systems to tackle some of the big challenges the health service faces coming out of the pandemic. Palantir said the system would help bring down waiting lists, improve patient care, and reduce health inequalities.

Since the Labour government came into power in 2024, it has decided to abolish NHS England and merge its responsibilities with those of DHSC, which requires further legislation in Parliament, with a deadline of April 2027.

Before the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee this week, Lord Vallance was clear that DHSC was responsible for deciding the future of the Palantir FDP contract.

His Majesty's Treasury is currently reviewing DHSC digital investment plans. Doctors have been told by their union, the British Medical Association, to limit engagement with the NHS FDP, MPs have called for an end to Palantir's involvement in the NHS, and legal and privacy campaign groups have highlighted risks that the system could be used by the Home Office and the police under a future government.

Some senior NHS England tech and data leaders during the Palantir procurement have moved on or are about to do so. The tender was already in train when John Quinn arrived as CIO in June 2023. He left in March last year. Ming Tang was national director data and analytics during the pandemic, in the period when NHS England first employed Palantir to help build a data platform, under £60 million of contracts awarded without competition. She became chief data and analytics officer during the FDP procurement and is now also interim CIO. She is set to leave in April. CTO Sonia Patel is also set to leave this month. ®