Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any Freedom of Information requests seeking briefings, minutes and internal reports concerning Palantir Technologies have been refused since 2023.

Since January 2023, the Department has received and answered 17 Freedom of Information (FOI) requests seeking briefings, minutes, and internal reports concerning Palantir. The FOI Act provides several exemptions that allow public bodies to withhold information in particular circumstances. Exemptions exist to protect information that should not be disclosed, for example because disclosing it would be harmful to another person or it would be against the public interest.

Of these requests, where information was withheld in part, this was almost exclusively because it constituted personal or contact information. In one case some information was withheld as it related to policy formulation. Information released included briefings and minutes of meetings. Those requests that were refused in full were due to cost or because the request required clarification.