NHS England confirms: Palantir staff can access patient data

The National Health Service in England has confirmed it is allowing staff from Palantir access to patient data following a change in policy.

The US spy-tech firm provides the technology for the Federated Data Platform (FDP), under a £330 million ($446 million) contract it won in 2023. The system is designed to improve data sharing across the NHS in England and help the state healthcare provider recover from the pandemic backlog.

Under previously agreed rules, Palantir staff working on the FDP could only access the National Data Integration Tenant (NDIT), a data repository for patient data before it is transferred to the "pseudonymized" analytics system, if they apply to access for specific data sets.

A document released by NHS England says that Palantir staff can get a new "admin" role and access the NDIT and its identifiable patient data. Other consultants working on the FDP will get similar access.

The ...