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NHS: Palantir

Answer

The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) safely connects information from different systems across the National Health Service into a single, secure environment. This allows staff to co-ordinate care better to improve outcomes for patients.

The NHS FDP is delivering for the NHS, helping people get the care they need quicker and more efficiently. Since March 2024, more than 100,000 additional patients have been supported to undergo procedures in theatres partly by increasing theatre utilisation. Nearly 94,000 people have been supported on their cancer journey, with 7% seeing a reduction in the time it took to diagnose their cancer. There has been a 14% decrease in delays discharging patients staying in hospital for more than seven days, freeing up beds for those who need them most. NHS England publishes quarterly information on the benefits realised from the NHS FDP, which is available at the NHS.UK website.

To date, 24 integrated care board clusters and 168 NHS trusts have signed up to the NHS FDP.

NHS England operates robust procurement, governance, and information governance frameworks, with strong data processing and data protection terms embedded within associated third‑party contracts, to ensure that access to patient data is strictly controlled and only permitted where necessary for defined purposes.

NHS England remains a Controller for the NHS FDP, including acting as the Data Controller for the National Data Integration Tenant (NDIT). NHS England and participating organisations each act as Controllers in respect of the data they contribute to and use within their own tenancies on the platform. Suppliers such as Palantir Technologies UK Ltd act solely as data processors, acting only on the instructions of the relevant Controller.

Access to identifiable patient data within the NDIT is restricted. It is granted on a role-based, purpose-specific, and time-limited basis. Access is subject to multiple layers of approval, auditing, and oversight. This includes director-level approval for administrative access, continuous monitoring and logging of activity, and formal governance through the NDIT Design and Governance Group.

NHS England has acknowledged that elements of the published NDIT Data Protection Impact Assessment did not fully reflect these operational arrangements, including wording that referred to NHS staff rather than authorised users and support staff more broadly.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL694

Session

2026-27

Subjects

Data protection Databases NHS Medical records Palantir

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk