Ministry of Defence: Palantir Contracts

Lord Watts Excerpts

Wednesday 11th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

I will write to the noble Baroness about that. I will write, along with my noble friend Lady Anderson, to make sure that the noble Baroness gets one joint letter rather than two. I will take that on board and make sure that she gets it, and put a copy of it in the Library so that other noble Lords can see it as well.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, while I am not particularly worried about the way this contract was awarded, it does raise the issue of single companies being given large defence contracts without competition. It also raises value for money. I would hope that the defence department was looking at value for money and at making sure that where British industry can compete, it is encouraged to do so.

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

Again, that is an extremely important point. There are two things. Of course, single source is something that you try to avoid by having open competition, but there are circumstances where single-source contracts are in the interests of our country. Alongside that, as my noble friend hinted, we are trying to ensure that we develop UK industry and business as well. He will be interested that, as part of the enterprise agreement, it was announced in December 2025 that Palantir would commit £1.5 billion-worth of money to grow British business—to grow small and medium-sized enterprises—and develop skills right across the UK. We were conscious of the fact that it was a contract to a US-based company, as prestigious as it is, and wanted to ensure that the UK gained benefit from it as well. I hope that reassures my noble friend that, to some extent, we took the UK into account with that enterprise arrangement as well.