GP data quietly added to Palantir’s NHS data platform

Patient data from GP surgeries has begun flowing into the NHS Federated Data Platform built on Palantir software, despite previous assurances that GP data would not form part of the national system.

Data from five GP practices in Cheshire and Merseyside is being used within the region’s local version of the Federated Data Platform, according to internal NHS documents reported by the Financial Times.

The development represents a significant expansion in the type of information being used within the system, which has largely focused on hospital operations including waiting lists, theatre capacity, discharge planning and population health management.

GP records can contain some of the most comprehensive information held about a person’s health, potentially covering diagnoses, medications, test results, vaccinations and their history of interactions with primary care.

When the £330 million Federated Data Platform contract was awarded in 2023, the Government told Parliament that GP data would not be included in the national platform.

However, NHS officials say the Cheshire and Merseyside project does not contradict that assurance because the information is being placed into a local NHS instance of the platform rather than the national system.

The Federated Data Platform is not one central database containing every patient’s information. NHS trusts and Integrated Care Boards can operate their own separate areas, or “instances”, within the system and remain responsible for the information they place there.

NHS England’s current guidance confirms that where appropriate data-sharing agreements exist, trusts and Integrated Care Boards can place GP datasets they lawfully hold into their local instance of the Federated Data Platform.

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside said the pilot involving a small number of practices is intended to assess whether information from general practice can improve population health management and the planning of health and care services.

Data-sharing agreements are in place with the practices participating in the project. But internal NHS documents indicate officials were aware of the sensitivity surrounding the expansion. One internal note reportedly described the five-practice pilot as a “significant milestone” for the Federated Data Platform.

A separate NHS England briefing from early 2025 reportedly classified the potential inclusion of personally identifiable GP information as high risk and recognised the need for engagement with the public.

The development comes amid growing political and public scrutiny of Palantir’s involvement in NHS data infrastructure. Palantir Technologies UK acts as a data processor rather than the owner or controller of NHS patient information. NHS England and participating NHS organisations remain responsible for the data they contribute to and use within the platform.

Under the contractual arrangements, Palantir is only permitted to process patient information according to instructions from the relevant NHS organisation and cannot use NHS patient data for its own commercial purposes. Nevertheless, concerns about the company have increasingly become an issue for public confidence in NHS data sharing. Earlier this month, health innovation minister James Frith acknowledged concerns that mistrust of Palantir could affect people’s willingness to allow their information to be used by the NHS.

Around 60,000 additional people used the national data opt-out mechanism over a four-month period this year, although the national data opt-out relates to the use of confidential patient information for research and planning and does not simply prevent a person’s information being used for their direct medical care. Palantir’s wider work with governments, defence organisations and immigration authorities has contributed to opposition to its involvement in NHS infrastructure.

MPs on Parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee have called on the Government to use the break clause in the Federated Data Platform contract in 2027 and develop an alternative.

The NHS argues that the platform is already helping organisations improve the delivery of healthcare, including managing waiting lists, increasing theatre use and reducing delays in discharging patients from hospital.

NHS England also maintains that identifiable information held within local instances remains under the control of the relevant NHS organisation and that information transferred nationally for planning purposes is de-identified. The Cheshire and Merseyside pilot therefore does not mean GP records across England have been placed into one national Palantir database.

But it does demonstrate that GP information can now be incorporated into local versions of the technology where NHS organisations have the necessary legal and data-sharing arrangements. And that raises a wider question about public trust.

Three years after Parliament was assured that GP data would not form part of the national platform, the NHS is beginning to explore what connecting primary care information to local versions of that same technology could achieve. For patients, the debate is no longer simply about what the Federated Data Platform was originally designed to contain. It is increasingly about what it could contain next.

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