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The NHS faces legal challenge over its data deal with the controversial Silicon Valley firm Palantir, Sky News can reveal.
Palantir, who has become famous for his close ties to security services and immigration agencies in the United States, struck his first deal to handle NHS data in March last year for the nominal sum of £ 1.
The court case against the health service, which was announced today, could force it to reconsider the contract, which was extended in December 2020 and is now worth £ 23.5 million.
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The lawsuit is the latest procurement challenge during the pandemic, which has become a highly contentious topic in recent months, with critics accusing the government of favoring its own contacts.
It comes as a batch of internal government emails discovered by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and seen by Sky News reveal that high-level meetings between Palantir and the highest government and NHS officials were held prior to the pandemic, raising questions about the role of personal relationships in awarding the contract.
The lawsuit claims that NHS England failed to consider the impact of the renewed agreement on patients and the public when conducting a new Data Protection Impact Assessment, a claim the health service denies.
“This is a giant tech company looking to establish what will be a permanent beachhead on the NHS and we believe that people have a right to know and discuss this before it is too late,” said Cori Crider, co-founder of Foxglove. what is the case bringing on behalf of the openDemocracy news site.
An NHS spokesperson said: “The company is an accredited provider to the UK public sector, the NHS completed a Data Protection Impact Assessment in April 2020, and an update will be released in due course.”
Although Palantir does not store any health data on its own, Foxglove claims that by using its data analysis software for tasks like launching the vaccine, the NHS is putting public trust at risk.
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NHS experts say Palantir’s tool has proven immensely useful in ordering disparate streams of health service data, but Ms Crider said the NHS was “naive” in thinking that its relationship with the much-criticized firm it would not damage the fragile trust among ethnic minority communities. .
“The government’s vaccination campaigns teach us that there is no public health without public trust,” Crider told Sky News, citing criticism of Palantir by human rights groups for his work with US law enforcement and the Immigration Service. and Customs Control as possible sources of discomfort.
The lawsuit comes as a trove of internal UK government documents handed over to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism under the Freedom of Information Act showing how Palantir courted high-level NHS and government figures long before to be awarded a contract with the health service.
The emails reveal that in July 2019 Louis Mosley, head of Palantir UK, hosted a debate dinner chaired by conservative peer David Prior, chairman of the NHS of England.
They drank watermelon cocktails, which Lord Prior later valued at £ 60.
The following evening, Mosley emailed Lord Prior, thanking him for “a fascinating and thought-provoking discussion.” He added: “I am more convinced than ever that the UK is uniquely positioned to pioneer the next generation of medical discoveries and treatments.”
Hours later, Lord Prior responded, encouraging Mr. Mosley to get in touch “if you can see ways that he could help us structure and curate our data.”
The government has been criticized for a lack of transparency about pandemic contracts.
Despite this evasive response, Mosley remained in contact with Lord Prior. In early October, Palantir’s boss met with Matthew Gould, the former diplomat who had been appointed head of NHSX. “A very positive meeting,” he told Lord Prior by email, inviting him to a rally at Palantir headquarters in San Francisco in January.
Lord Prior accepted the offer. On January 14, 2020, he and a small team met with Palantir’s “Healthcare Life Sciences Brain Trust,” a group of about 10 of the technology company’s engineers and health sciences specialists.
According to “brief introductory notes” compiled by an official the day after the meeting, attendees left believing that Palantir’s multipurpose data software product was “exclusively focused on the UK healthcare market” .
Palantir and NHS England declined to comment on the content of the emails, but spokespersons for both organizations insisted the meetings had nothing to do with awarding any contracts.
Ms Crider reacted to this skeptically, saying, “What is the watermelon cocktail good for if not to gain favor and influence?”
He said the emails raised questions about the contract first awarded to Palantir in March 2020, which was described as an immediate response to an “unprecedented challenge”, rather than a long-term agreement.
The emails reveal the extensive contacts between Palantir and the UK government. The week following his meeting with Lord Prior, Mr Moseley met with the UK’s top trade official, Antonia Romeo, whom he received at the Palantir pavilion in Davos at the World Economic Forum.
According to briefing notes prepared for Romeo, who was then permanent secretary to the Department for International Trade (DIT), the “goals” of the meeting included underlining that the UK was “a great place for Palantir to expand its software business.”
DIT officials also said they wanted “to understand how we can support their [Palantir’s] growth in the UK “, saying they would like to know” how we help with recruiting, identifying real estate for expansion, visa planning “.
A spokesperson for the DIT denied that there was anything unusual about these exchanges, saying: “DIT officials engage with a wide range of companies as part of their responsibility to support UK trade and investment.”
But critics point out that encouraging Palantir’s investment is different, because its main client is often the government itself.
“The point of these exchanges is that senior officials are doing their best to accommodate Palantir and are not asking critical questions about how their technologies will reshape service delivery,” said technology researcher Rachel Coldicutt.
Since the NHS contract with Palantir was first announced, its terms have been expanded to cover a much wider range of topics, including Brexit, flu shots, and the ability to ‘drill down and see the changes in the data. of the workforce over time. “
Palantir’s defenders said that showed how effective the software had been, but data policy experts cautioned that the government needed to be more transparent about the changes if it wanted to ensure public trust.
“The government will squander any opportunity that may exist to better serve the public through the use of data and new technologies if it does not have the conversation about what is acceptable in public and with the public,” said technology researcher Gavin Freeguard.
Matt Hancock’s new plan for health and social care reform, which he unveiled earlier this month, outlines broad proposals for greater use of health data. He describes the NHS’s work with Palantir as one of his “accomplishments.”
Last week, the health secretary was found to have broken the law by failing to release details of coronavirus-related contracts worth billions within the required time frame.
Hancock defended the decision, saying he prioritized fighting the virus over transparency, but the Labor Party asked him to commit to greater transparency to regain public trust.
