The UK government is considering invoking a break clause in its £330 million contract with Palantir for the NHS Federated Data Platform following criticism from MPs, unions and campaigners over delivery and data control.

Zubir Ahmed MP told Westminster Hall that patient safety, quality and value for money remain the priority, with a full evaluation due at the spring break clause (The Register, 2026). Martin Wrigley MP reported the platform reaches only half of planned NHS trusts with just a quarter seeing benefits, against an original scope of 13 capabilities of which only three or four were partially met.

The contract awards all custom software, IP and know-how to Palantir with no transfer to the NHS, creating permanent lock-in via trust-specific connectors (Wrigley, 2026). This builds on £60 million in pandemic contracts awarded to Palantir from an initial £1 agreement in 2020, as previously reported (The Register, 2026; House of Commons Library, 2023).

Privacy advocates warn of potential non-clinical access by police or immigration, citing open letters to NHS England and past incidents (medConfidential open letter, 2024). Similar tensions arose with Google DeepMind's 2015-2017 NHS data processing agreement ruled improper by the ICO for lack of transparency (ICO, 2017), underscoring recurring challenges with big tech in UK public health data infrastructure (Science and Technology Committee, 2023).