More Than 44,000 People Object to Palantir’s NHS Platform Using Their Health Data

Palantir says its NHS software helps deliver more operations and faster hospital discharges. But more than 44,000 people have formally objected to their personal health information being processed through the system. The campaign, reported by the Guardian on September 30, asks NHS England to block that use—and pause it while the requests are assessed.

The nonprofit 38 Degrees coordinated the objections to the Federated Data Platform, or FDP. The platform uses Palantir’s technology to connect information across the health service, including surgery schedules and discharge planning. Its intended role is to help organise care; the campaign challenges whether patients can trust the company involved in handling that information.

A legal request, not another petition

The objections invoke Article 21 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation, the country’s data-protection rules. They cover personal health data being shared with, stored in or used through the platform. That makes the campaign a request concerning each objector’s information, rather than simply a demand that ministers choose a different supplier.

According to the Guardian’s account of the legal mechanism, the NHS must stop using objectors’ data unless it can provide a compelling reason to continue. The campaign therefore puts two requests before NHS England:

• Block the platform from sharing, storing or using the objector’s personal health information.
• Halt processing through the platform while the main objection is being assessed.

Trust is explicit in the objections, which say Palantir’s involvement undermines confidence in NHS data confidentiality. David Murray, a retired IBM systems engineer who submitted a request, supports the NHS having good patient data but objects to Palantir’s involvement with the Israeli military and US immigration enforcement.

I am a believer in the NHS having really good data on their patients, but I want it to be something you can really trust to be used for the right purposes.

David Murray, retired IBM systems engineer and campaign participant, speaking to the Guardian

The NHS points to control of the data

NHS England says NHS organisations remain in control of their information within the FDP, and suppliers cannot access it for their own purposes. It has committed to responding to the objections under data-protection law. That response addresses who controls the records and how the requests will be handled, rather than promising to grant every objection.

Palantir’s answer is similarly focused on restrictions: it says patient information can be handled only according to NHS instructions and stays in the UK. Those assurances sit alongside the campaign’s stated concern about the supplier itself. The objection is framed around personal trust in confidentiality, not an allegation that these records have already been misused.

Claimed benefits meet contract scrutiny

Palantir defends the platform on care outcomes as well as data safeguards. It says trusts using its software recorded 117,000 additional operations and a 14.3% reduction in discharge delays for long-stay patients. It also cites a 5.6% improvement in the number of people learning whether they have cancer within 28 days. These are company-supplied figures.

The scale of the benefits remains contested. NHS England chief executive Jim Mackey has acknowledged concerns that the platform’s public-health benefits may be smaller than claimed. That dispute concerns what the software delivers, while the formal objections concern whether particular people’s information should be processed through it.

The requests also arrive during scrutiny of the £330 million, seven-year NHS deal. Two House of Commons select committees have called for the government to exercise a break clause, which becomes available in February 2027. Ending the contract would be a government decision about the supplier; answering the objections is NHS England’s separate data-protection responsibility.