Story perspectives

NHS Grants Palantir Broad Access to Identifiable Patient Data

5/12/2026

Summary

NHS Grants Access

NHS England granted Palantir Technologies and other contractors broad access to identifiable patient data while building the National Data Integration Tenant system.
A Financial Times report cited an NHS briefing note saying some external staff had unlimited patient data access.
NHS England said strict safeguards and regular audits already protect the data.
A spokesperson said external workers need government clearance and senior NHS leadership approval for each worker’s access.

Summary

MPs Warn

MPs have warned that the Palantir data deal could erode public confidence in the NHS.
Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said patients demand transparency, clear data-access limits and prior consultation.
May polling showed over two-thirds of the public worry about Palantir’s contracts and 40 % distrust its NHS data handling.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said he is not a fan of Palantir’s leadership while defending the collaboration.

Summary

NHS Blocks Palantir

A decision on whether to invoke the contract’s break clause is expected in February 2027.
Several NHS staff have refused to use the Federated Data Platform because of ethical concerns over Palantir.
Some NHS engineers have described the platform as awful to operate.
The £330 million contract survived two legal challenges and was republished with fewer redactions.
Saif Abed warned that broad admin access could cause a breach like the UK Biobank scandal.

Summary

NHS Faces Risk

Regulators are assessing whether public bodies retain meaningful control over sensitive data when external contractors have broad access.
An NHS briefing note warns that real-time visibility into who accesses identifiable patient information is difficult to maintain.
Governance structures become regulatory risk if they grow too broad, fragmented, or hard to supervise.
Wider privileged access hampers auditability, making it harder to track who accessed data and why.

History

Historical Context

The NHS’s care.data programme, launched in spring 2013 and stopped in May 2014, later abandoned in July 2016 after a pathfinder involving 265 GP surgeries, sparked major privacy concerns. Coupled with the 2014 Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act, this history frames today’s £330 million Palantir contract overseen by Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Patients Association chief Rachel Power, raising similar privacy concerns.

1 of 5

NHS Grants Access

NHS England granted Palantir Technologies and other contractors broad access to identifiable patient data while building the National Data Integration Tenant system.
A Financial Times report cited an NHS briefing note saying some external staff had unlimited patient data access.
NHS England said strict safeguards and regular audits already protect the data.
A spokesperson said external workers need government clearance and senior NHS leadership approval for each worker’s access.

1 / 5