Patients - Say No to Palantir in the NHS!

Petition to West Yorkshire ICB and WY Acute Trusts

Are you concerned about your NHS data, and do you live in or use health services in West Yorkshire?

If so, did you know that NHS England's Federated Data Platform (FDP) is being run by the private US tech company, Palantir?

The FDP is software that takes data from numerous systems used by the NHS. It will hold individual health records for over 50 million NHS users, gathered from over 240 hospitals and 42 commissioning authorities (ICBs) across England.

Palantir's contract is up for renewal this year, due to a "break clause", which gives the government an opportunity to terminate it at the start of 2027.

We, the West Yorkshire branch of the No Palantir in the NHS campaign, will collect signatures for this petition and submit to the West Yorkshire ICB meeting on March 24th to demand they stop the rollout of Palantir's data platform in our NHS.

If you choose to remain anonymous to the West Yorkshire NHS, please select “yes” in the “I choose to remain anonymous” box when you sign the petition. Only the name of the NHS organisation you use (hospital, GP practice) will then show on the petition we present to the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board

Here are the 8 things you should know about Palantir, and their product for the NHS; the Federated Data Platform, and why you should sign our petition to the West Yorkshire ICB, to pause/reject the rollout and review this product further.

8 things you should know about Palantir and the FDP:

  1. Palantir is a US military-tech company with no track record in healthcare. Currently, US immigration agents, ICE, are using a Palantir developed app which mines American's health data to hunt people.
  2. The NHS gave Palantir a £330 million contract to create the Federated Data Platform (FDP) to integrate NHSE data - the largest respoitory of health data in the world.
  3. Many Trusts and ICB's have raised concerns about the FDP rollout, with some refusing implementation altogether.
  4. The British Medical Association (BMA) voted to resist the rollout of the FDP based on the view that Palantir was an unacceptable partner for the NHS.
  5. The Good Law Project took legal action against NHSE over Palantir's contract.
  6. The FDP's procurement process lacks transparency and key stakeholder engagement, and NHS data professionals have raised multiple concerns.
  7. Investigations have revealed that the FDP product is costing the NHS a lot more than originally stated.
  8. Palantir have stated their intention to monopolise government contracts. Outsourcing important data management systems to a private company, will create a vendor lock in.

Amidst huge financial pressures and staffing cuts, investing in software that lacks efficiency and furthers privatization of public services will put NHS data at risk, and increase these pressures.

Help us raise these concerns with the West Yorkshire ICB. Follow in the footsteps of other Integrated Care Boards and Trusts who have rejected tech that undermines public trust, compromises NHS commitment to protecting patients, and presents significant risk to NHS values.

Please sign this petition and we will make sure your voice is represented. This petition fully supports health workers across West Yorkshire who are also writing to the ICB in March. You can check out their petition HERE.

If you are a West Yorkshire NHS employee you can sign the petition for staff HERE.

Sign and share now!

Only the NHS service that you use (your local hospital or GP) will be shared with the ICB and WY Acute trusts if you choose to remain anonymous.

To: Petition to West Yorkshire ICB and WY Acute Trusts
From: [Your Name]

Palantir out of West Yorkshire NHS - patients’ petition

For compelling reasons we NHS patients (past, present and future) call on the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and its (Palantir) Federated Data Platform (FDP) Working Group to:

• End Palantir’s involvement in West Yorkshire’s NHS as soon as possible.
• Revert to NHS alternatives to Palantir’s Federated Data Platform, tools and apps that are currently in use in West Yorkshire integrated care boards and NHS hospital trusts. These Palantir products include: National Data Integration Tenant, Optimised Patient Tracking & Intelligent Choices Application (OPTICA), and Referral to Treatment validation tool.

Background

1. Palantir is a US tech and surveillance company with a £330m five-year contract to process comprehensive NHS data through its Federated Data Platform. The company is wired into the US Pentagon and as such is in the grip of the US government. So it is powerless to protect the confidentiality of NHS institutional and patients’ data, if the US government wants it.

The US government has powers to force companies to do as it wants under the Defense Production Act - Cold War-era legislation which it is currently threatening to use against a Palantir partner, Anthropic, in order to make unrestricted use of Anthropic’s AI technology. Anthropic has refused to allow the Pentagon free rein in the use of its technology, referencing scruples over lethal autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance.

We cannot continue to allow Palantir’s Federated Data Platform and related products access to the NHS, when it is clear that the company can be compelled to do the US government’s bidding.

2. It is also unacceptable that NHS England and West Yorkshire ICB between them seem to be unreliable sources of information about the use of Palantir’s Federated Data Platform in the NHS. NHS England categorically says that “no confidential patient information obtained from GP practices is used in this product.” - and for this reason, patients can’t use Opt Out 1 to refuse to allow their data to be processed through Palantir’s Federated Data Platform and products. But the WYICB Federated Data Platform Working Group minutes show it is looking at "the challenges" of getting primary care to integrate GP patient data into the Palantir FDP and "emphasising the importance" of "incorporating primary care data availability and engagement" into WYICB data strategy "ensuring a comprehensive approach to data analytics.”

3. We are already seeing a breakdown of patients’ trust in the NHS as a result of systemic infant and maternity care failures. Individual and public health depends on trust in the NHS. This is being further eroded by Palantir’s contract with the NHS. If this were to continue, the consequences would be disastrous both for individuals and society.

Yours sincerely,
West Yorkshire Patient XX