NHS breaks up £400mn information contract in response to privateness considerations

The UK’s NHS has damaged up a £400mn showpiece information contract into a number of components, however US information analytics big Palantir stays probably the most outstanding bidder for the well being service’s working system.

The corporate is greatest identified for its ties to the safety, defence and intelligence sectors and its drive to course of hundreds of thousands of sufferers’ information has alarmed some privateness activists and NHS workers.

Palantir remains to be set to bid for the contract to function the NHS’s most important information platform — probably the most profitable component of the contract with a price of £360mn.

However now that the NHS has damaged up the general contract, Palantir wouldn’t have the ability to bid for related however smaller initiatives for privateness know-how or an app-store model market. It isn’t clear whether or not it may nonetheless compete for a fourth contract overlaying coaching, implementation and deployment.

Ming Tang, chief information and analytics officer at NHS England, informed the Monetary Occasions the organisation had cut up up the procurement for the general £400mn Federated Information Platform programme into 4 contracts to “safeguard” the service.

“Whoever processes the platform can’t personal the privateness enhancing know-how so the important thing switch [of data] is secure,” she stated.

Tang added that the much-delayed undertaking, which is able to allow the sharing of information throughout NHS England, is awaiting log out from the Treasury.

Suppliers realized they’d be barred from bidding for all components of the undertaking in August, in response to a doc seen by the FT. An invite to tender is anticipated within the coming weeks.

A senior well being determine stated at the least one British firm was more likely to have a practical likelihood of profitable a part of the contract, serving to defuse considerations a couple of US firm processing UK well being information.

Palantir assumed the function of the NHS’s most important information analytics supplier throughout the pandemic, serving to handle the usage of ventilators and protecting gear and organise vaccinations.

The group landed an additional £23.5mn contract to deal with ready lists in December 2020.

The federated information platform is a a lot bigger prize. Palantir, whose founders embody entrepreneur Peter Thiel and chief govt Alex Karp, has maintained that the group’s know-how can ship all facets of the programme.

Tang sought to dismiss recommendations that splitting up the contract was meant to restrict Palantir’s function. “The division is simply methods to safeguard the NHS,” she stated this week. “There may be fairly an obsession with Palantir. If we are able to discover an alternate that’s higher [than Palantir], that’s what we’ll find yourself with.”

One other particular person conversant in the discussions informed the FT the transfer was the seemingly results of recommendation from procurement and information safety specialists, whereas additionally reflecting considerations about one firm working all the programme.

However Phil Sales space at MedConfidential, a privateness campaigning group, stated the division of the programme didn’t present transparency on how sufferers’ information can be used.

Palantir, which employed two senior NHS officers over the summer season, together with Tang’s former deputy at NHS England, Harjeet Dhaliwal, stated it was “relaxed” in regards to the transfer to interrupt up the contract. It added that the choice was “very rightly one for the NHS, and the NHS alone to make”.

It would compete for the principle platform contract in opposition to different teams, together with Britain’s Quantexa, a supplier of information infrastructure to banks comparable to Normal Chartered and HSBC. Quantexa’s chief govt Vishal Marria stated it deliberate to bid as a part of a consortium with a big consulting agency.

Teams jockeying for the smaller £35mn privateness enhancing know-how contract embody Privitar, a British information privateness software program firm that has current contracts with NHS Digital.

In an indication of considerations inside the NHS about Palantir’s function, Tang confronted a number of questions in regards to the US firm from delegates at a digital well being convention this week.

Dr Marcus Baw, a GP and privateness campaigner, was applauded by some delegates when stated he wouldn’t award the contract to Palantir have been he in her place.

“We’re going via a bloody procurement and we’ll purchase no matter’s greatest on the market,” Tang replied.