Concerns mount over NHS software supplier’s links with ICE

Concerns are mounting over links between NHS federated data platform (FDP) supplier Palantir and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as tensions rise in the US. 

US firm Palantir signed a £330m contract in 2023 to provide the FDP, which will be reviewed by NHS England in 2027.

The company also provides advanced data analytics software used by government agencies, intelligence, and law enforcement for surveillance, predictive policing, and data integration.

NHSE’s medium term planning framework, published in October 2025, mandates that all trusts and integrated care boards must be onboarded to the FDP and use its core products to support elective recovery, cancer, and urgent and emergency care.

However clinicians, patients and politicians have expressed increasing concern about the NHS supplier’s provision of surveillance software to the ICE, after the last few weeks saw ICE agents fatally shoot two US citizens: Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse.

Doctors vote no confidence

The British Medical Association (BMA) voted to lobby against the firm’s involvement in the NHS at its annual representative meeting in June 2025, owing to “a lack of transparency in how the data will be stored and processed, a track record of creating discriminatory policing software in the US, and close links to a US government which shows little regard for international law”.

Dr David Wrigley, deputy chair of GPC England at the BMA, told Digital Health News: “If Palantir’s software is being used to target individuals in immigration enforcement and is being deployed in active conflict zones, then that’s completely incompatible with the values we uphold in the delivery of care.

“Patients will understandably be alarmed and may choose to withhold information from their doctor to the detriment of their care if they do not trust the organisation processing their data or there are fears about what the data might be used for.”

Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party, delivered a letter to Palantir on 21 January 2026, telling the firm to “get the hell out of the NHS” and criticising its provision of technology to ICE.

In the letter Polanski says: “It has been reported that you are working on a tool for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that populates a map with potential deportation targets, brings up a dossier on each person, and provides a ‘confidence score’ on the person’s current address.

“We are strongly of the view that ICE is acting like a personalised paramilitary police force to Donald Trump, and recently shot dead Renee Good in cold blood. We stand in solidarity with her.”

It also flags concerns about the firm’s alleged provision of technology to Israel in support of war-related missions and “track record around the world of surveillance and discriminatory use of data”.

Patient fears

Concerns are also rising among patients. A Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust board paper, published on 16 January 2026, highlights “questions from members of the public addressed concerns regarding the FDP” and said that members of staff had “raised issues related to supplier Palantir, citing human rights concerns linked to actions in Israel and refencing Amnesty International reports”.

A spokesperson for Rotherham NHS FT told Digital Health News that concerns had been “responded to directly” by the trust.

The Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition in London has raised a petition calling on the government to end Palantir’s involvement in the NHS and the campaign group Medact Sheffield held a free public meeting on 26 January to “discuss how local citizens and health workers can take collective action to keep Palantir out of the NHS”.

Duncan McCann, head of tech and data at the Good Law Project, which previously took legal action over NHSE’s heavily redacted contract with Palantir, said: “If the NHS gets into bed with a firm like Palantir – which powers deadly immigration raids in the US – it puts patient privacy and public trust at risk.”

Delivering results in the NHS

Responding to concerns, a spokesperson for Palantir, told Digital Health News: “ICE’s use of our software is longstanding – dating back to 2011, and has continued across multiple administrations, including those under Presidents Obama, Biden, and Trump.”

They added that although Palantir is “proud to support Israel”, the firm has “no involvement whatsoever in the so-called ‘Lavender’ and ‘Gospel’ targeting systems” used by Israel.

“As well as being used to deliver results in the NHS, Palantir software is also being used by UK police to tackle domestic violence and organised crime – and notably by Ukraine, to defend its citizens from the Russian invasion,” they said.

The firm said that the FDP has helped the NHS deliver an additional 80,000 operations and reduce delays to discharge by around 15%.

Meanwhile, some NHS trusts have opted not to use the FDP because they have their own local data tools in place.

A spokesperson for NHSE told Digital Health News: “The supplier of the NHS FDP was appointed in line with public contract regulations and must only operate under the instruction of the NHS when processing data, with strict stipulations in the contract about confidentiality.

“The platform is already delivering for the NHS – helping to join up patient care, increase hospital productivity, speed up cancer diagnosis and ensure thousands of additional patients can be treated each month.”