The costs of Palantir’s NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) could exceed £1.1 billion according to a new cost assessment by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA).
The governmental agency noted that this compared to a new project benefits projection of £808.28 million. NISTA said it had revised the figure down due to “the adoption of a more developed forecasting approach based on improved data, more detailed delivery assumptions, and a stronger understanding of product performance, usage, and adoption”.
In its breakdown of the new forecasts, NISTA explained that “increased delivery at scale” in the 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years has driven up the whole-life cost of NHS England’s deal with Palantir, which was signed in 2023 and is expected to run until March 2032.
“Despite this increase, the Programme remains within the departmental baseline,” the agency added in its cost assessment.
The FDP is intended to connect every NHS Trust and integrated care system (ICS) with beneficial data sharing and is now used by more than half of all NHS England trusts.
The Telegraph has cited NHS figures that show the FDP has already enabled 110,000 additional operations since 2024 and sped up cancer diagnoses. The publication has also reported on backlash from MPs and trade unions against Palantir’s involvement over the firm’s ties to the Israeli military and US immigration authorities.
In July, an FT investigation found errors in the underlying NHS England data used to justify claims that Palantir technology drove a 15 per cent decline in delays to discharging hospital patients. The figure is seen as key to NHS England’s justification for the wider deal.
That month, a cross-party group of MPs urged the government to find an alternative to the FDP over “serious mistrust” of Palantir by the general public, as well as doubt over its effectiveness.
The new prime minister Andy Burnham is expected to review the NHS’s contract with Palantir. The current seven-year contract includes a break clause that would allow the NHS to exit the contract in March 2027, provided it informed Palantir by December 2026.
In May, the mayor of London Sadiq Khan blocked a proposed £50 million Metropolitan Police contract with Palantir after City Hall found the deal had breached the procurement process. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime found that Scotland Yard had effectively engaged with Palantir alone and had not demonstrated value for money.
