Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether other alternative providers were considered before extending Palantir’s NHS Covid Data Contract.

NHS England extended the COVID-19 Data Platform contract until 11 June 2023 to support the procurement for the Federated Data Platform and Associated Services (FDP-AS) contract.

The contract was executed through the Crown Commercial Service’s G-Cloud framework and included an option for the extension. No other suppliers were considered as this extension with the incumbent supplier is a key enabler to support the open procurement, launched on 10 January 2023, for the FDP-AS contract. This new contract will replace the current COVID-19 Data Platform provided by Palantir. It is anticipated that the contract will be awarded in the autumn of 2023.

The FDP-AS contract is being procured via an open competition, in line with Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The competition is open to all suppliers and abides by all the core principles of the regulations including transparency, non-discrimination, equal treatment and proportionality. These principles apply to all suppliers who decide to bid for the Federated Data Platform and Associated Services contract and any supplier organisation can respond to the advertised contract notice and download the associated tender documents.