NHS Grants Palantir Staff Access to Patient Data

NHS England has granted external contractors, including staff from Palantir, unlimited access to identifiable patient data within a key component of its Federated Data Platform, marking a shift from prior restrictions that required specific approvals for datasets.

The change applies to the National Data Integration Tenant, a secure area in the FDP where patient information is stored before pseudonymisation and transfer to other systems. Palantir secured a 330 million pound contract in 2023 to develop the FDP, which integrates fragmented NHS data from hundreds of sources to track performance, waiting lists, staffing and improve patient care. Previously, non-NHS staff needed to apply individually for access to particular datasets, a process described in an internal NHS briefing as time-consuming due to the volume of data pipelines.

The briefing, prepared by a senior NHS data official in April, outlined the creation of a new admin role allowing a small number of external workers the same broad permissions as cleared NHS England employees. It noted the inconvenience of repeated applications for confidential data access agreements and recommended capping such access, making it...