Palantir defends its record as MP demands more scrutiny of data use

The UK boss of Palantir has defended the company over calls for more scrutiny of its use of data within NHS contracts. There has been a backlash against guidance sent to every trust in NHS England, which states they should all be using Palantir's "core products" in hospitals from this month, according to the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Last week Labour MP Emily Darlington told the BBC that having a "foreign tech company" involved with patient data in the NHS was "a major security risk". The Liberal Democrats have said Palantir "should be nowhere near our national security infrastructure", while Green Party leader Zack Polanski labelled the firm "a military surveillance company". Conservative MP Wendy Morton has also called for more scrutiny of the US tech company's "ability to protect data". The US-headquartered analytics company won a contract worth up to £330m with NHS England for its Foundry "federated data platform" (FDP) at the end of 2023, which will be up for renewal at the start of next year. The FDP software is designed to link up otherwise-incompatible databases, fixing an issue that has hampered the NHS, where unrelated IT systems are used in different locations, such