Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with NHS data staff on potential concerns on contracting Palantir to build the health service operating system.

My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has not discussed with National Health Service staff any concerns they may have in relation to any potential contracting by NHS England with any potential supplier.

Any NHS data services that require a supplier contract will be procured via a compliant contracting mechanism and this will follow the standard processes for assurance and approval. The Department will perform the appropriate role as part of these standard approval processes. NHS England has not made any request to Palantir for them to build the health service operating system. NHS England is currently out to ITCD for a Federated Data Platform for the NHS, however, we would not define this as an operating system.