Ministry of Defence: Palantir Contracts

Lord Bellingham Excerpts

Wednesday 11th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

I say to the noble Lord, who asks an important question with respect to this, that the UK defence data used and developed in Palantir’s software remains sovereign and under the control of the MoD. It resides in the United Kingdom. We have clear contractual controls in place to ensure that, as well as control over the data system that Palantir software sits upon. Any change from this cannot be conducted without the consent of the United Kingdom, so very real protections are in place to ensure that we can get the benefits from Palantir while protecting the data and information, so that we can allay the noble Lord’s concerns.

[Lord Bellingham (Con)]

My Lords, when the Prime Minister and Lord Mandelson visited the HQ of Palantir, met the chief executive, toured the offices and obviously had meetings with many other representatives there, were minutes taken of that meeting?

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

No minutes were taken of that meeting, but it was a routine visit. The noble Lord will know from his own experience that going to visit businesses and industry is a significant part of the job. The noble Lord will have done it in the past; he will have gone with civil servants and others, maybe not industrialists but with industry representatives, to see that capability. That is not a criticism of the noble Lord; it was him doing his job. The Prime Minister went with the then ambassador to Palantir. As I understand it, during that visit he had a short presentation, followed by a tour of the premises and an introduction to members of staff. That is the Prime Minister doing his job: trying to develop and build business contacts with huge companies which are of benefit to our country.