Human rights group urges hospitals not to use Palantir software

Palantir’s contract to run the NHS federated data platform (FDP) could cause “data-driven state abuses of power”, health justice charity Medact has warned. 

US firm Palantir signed a £330m contract with NHS England in 2023 to provide the FDP. but there has been increasing concern about the firm’s provision of surveillance software to government agencies and law enforcement including the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Medact’s report, ‘Briefing: Concerns regarding Palantir Technologies and NHS data systems‘, published on 12 March, cautions that health data from the FDP could potentially be used for US-style immigration raids.

It quotes 2020 research, published by Patients not Passports, which found that 57% of migrant organisations reported migrants had avoiding healthcare because of fears of being charged for NHS care, data sharing and other migration enforcement concerns.

“Palantir’s high profile work with ICE, alongside the existing data sharing agreements between the Home Office and the NHS, is likely to worsen this,” Medact argues.

It recommends that trusts and integrated care boards decline the implementation of FDP or other Palantir products and instead prioritise in-house or open source software.

In January, the British Medical Association (BMA) highlighted reports from the US that formerly separate datasets including medical records, had been processed and linked by ICE using Palantir’s bespoke Immigration OS platform.

A chief analytical officer in the NHS told Digital Health News: “While the technology issues raised in this report could potentially be levelled at a number of other suppliers, the ill-will that Palantir keeps creating is becoming a major distraction for NHSE, not necessarily because of any FDP developments but because of the continual association with news issues such as ICE and the recent US bombing of Iran.

“There is increasing unwillingness from NHS analysts to use the FDP because of these wider issues.”

Another senior leader in the NHS data and analytical community said: “NHSE needs to stop avoiding this challenge and pursuing the FDP at all costs while these widespread concerns persist and provide a clear line on what they are going to preserve and re-establish public trust.”

A review of NHSE’s contract with Palantir is due in early 2027.

Duncan McCann, technology and data lead at the Good Law Project, said: “Patient data is the lifeblood of the NHS, but this deal hands our health records to a firm that has built its business on mass surveillance and data sharing across government departments.

“Palantir is a direct threat to our health service that could see millions of people refuse to share their records – fatally undermining the very system it claims to improve.”

In response to the report, 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% reduction in discharge delays and the removal of 675,000 patients from waiting lists.

“But that is what it is – software. 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.”

The UK government’s contracts with Palantir have also come under scrutiny after it emerged that prime minister Keir Starmer paid an informal visit to the firm’s US headquarters with former US ambassador Peter Mandleson in February 2025.

Meanwhile, the FT reported that Matthew Swindells, joint chair of four hospital trusts in London, privately urged colleagues to add more patient data into the FDP while he was being paid to advise the company.

Digital Health News approached NHSE for comment.