Palantir lobbied UK pensions department for its software to tackle fraud
"We're proud that our software has helped the UK Government to deliver a successful COVID vaccine rollout, reduce NHS waiting lists, enable Royal Navy vessels to spend longer at sea and safely resettle Ukrainian refugees – all while rigorously protecting data privacy.
"We make no apology for constantly looking for new ways in which our software can help and there is nothing unusual about writing official correspondence to ministers offering ideas for how it could." Palantir has drawn criticism for its approach to lobbying the Department for Health and Social Care in the lead-up to its contract award during the pandemic. According to[PDF] by campaign groups Foxglove and the Doctors' Association UK, in mid–2019 Palantir met with then–chair of NHS England's board, Lord David Prior. Over the next few months it lobbied with Matthew Gould, who at the time was CEO of NHSX, the health service's technology and transformation unit.
Palantir is considered a frontrunner in the competition for the £480 million Federated Data Platform contract, which is currently in competitive procurement. It first started working with NHS England during the height of the pandemic, when a £1 award led to a £1 million deal, and then a £23 million contract signed in December 2020