Overview
- An NHS England internal note, reported Monday by the Financial Times, outlined a new admin role that would give some external engineers including Palantir staff wide access to raw patient records in the National Data Integration Tenant, which stores data before any masking.
- The proposal moves away from case-by-case approvals for specific datasets and towards broad credentials for contractors working on the Federated Data Platform that links hospital and clinic systems.
- NHS England says only a small number of non‑NHS users would qualify with government security clearance and director-level approval, and Palantir says it acts only as a data processor under NHS instruction with access controls overseen by the health service.
- The April briefing warned of a loss of public confidence over safeguarding and recommended capping the number of external admins with time-limited access that is regularly reviewed.
- The £330m Federated Data Platform run by Palantir has drawn scrutiny over the firm’s defence ties and redacted contract sections on how data is pseudonymised, with campaigners seeking published impact assessments and a potential 2027 contract break-point review.