Thread by @allthecitizens

🚨NEW: Controversial US data firm Palantir looks set to win £230m deal for a ‘Federated Data Platform’ for NHS England, as company hires ex-NHSX ‘AI leader’ head Indra Joshi

Experts question lack of public consultation concerning ‘spy tech’ firm embedding in UK health service🧵

The contract, reported by first Digital Health, states NHS England is seeking ‘a Federated Data Platform (FDP), which will be an essential enabler to transform improvements across the NHS’. This platform will have 5 “use cases”
digitalhealth.net/2022/04/nhs-en…

The notice states that ‘suppliers are invited to participate in NHS England’s pre-market consultation’ that this is ‘NOT a call for competition
contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/10fdfaf…

Digital Health ‘understands that the front-runner for the FDP is widely assumed to be the existing data platform provider, Palantir’

NHS England did not confirm to @allthecitizens whether this was the case or not.

Following a legal challenge brought by @OpenDemocracy and @FoxgloveLegal, it was reported the UK government had agreed to “press pause” on any further contracts with the data-analytics giant, and that future deals would be “transparent”
bbc.co.uk/news/technolog…

This claim was, however, disputed by NHS England, who maintained they had always acted legally and that the advocacy groups had dropped the case.

The original £1 contract with Palantir at the start of Covid was only released under threat of legal action:
opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/why-…

Speculation over the extent of Palantir’s ongoing NHS involvement comes following another recent report from 2 March that the company would be rolling its software out across 30 hospital trusts following a successful pilot in Chelsea and Westminster trust:
ft.com/content/c1e9f4…

The move was said at the time to ‘consolidate Palantir’s position as the preferred operating system for the NHS’, despite the previous battle for consultation, and was a proof-of-concept potentially part of the previous £23 million deal.

Also, in September 2021, @allthecitizens noticed another small spend with the company, allocated to ‘NEL CSU’ - North East London Commissioning Support Unit, dated June 2021.

We asked the CSUs at that time for correspondence between themselves and Palantir, in an FOI campaign that continued until Feb 2022; the matter has now gone to the Information Commissioners' Office.

During the back and forth, the CSU in question confirmed that there had been 11,200 Email and calendar entries from 2 CSUs referencing Palantir; the eventual response was then given a cost exemption.

After attempting to refine the request, the last response received in Feb stated that ‘FOI requests for NECS are processed by NHS England once we provide them with the data they need in order to do so’, and suggested we transfer the request to NHS England.

It’s unclear whether the £1 spend and correspondence are related to the elective care backlog award, whether these fall under the original £23m agreement, or whether the new alleged £230 million FDP relates to either.

While the £1 spend might seem small, it is the same amount as Palantir charged for their first pandemic-related agreement, before going on to win further contracts with both the NHS and DHSC, after ‘wooing’ the health service for months:
thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2021-0…

On 24 March, Palantir were also announced by the NHS Federation account on Twitter as an event partner for the upcoming Confed Expo in June:

https://twitter.com/NHSConfed/status/1506948952410664963?s=20&t=0N8vW9o7YZ8ilHuDYlVX7g

More recent news that former NHSX leader Indra Joshi is to join the ranks of Peter Thiel’s surveillance firm seems to further suggest that Palantir are far from employed purely for short term pandemic response, and have a more permanent position in the NHS
theregister.com/2022/04/22/nhs…

@allthecitizens have previously mapped the expansion of the shadowy tech giant into UK public institutions at over £100m in government contracts, spanning local councils, the Cabinet Office, MoD, NHS, DHSC, and working with intelligence operatives at GCHQ:

https://twitter.com/allthecitizens/status/1438899565210611720?s=20&t=esbNv6RXsv6eL5hQ_Iij5w