Multiple outlets report that NHS England is allowing external contractor staff, including Palantir personnel, to access identifiable patient data through a new administrative pathway. According to leaked internal briefing materials described by the outlets, NHS England’s £330m Federated Data Platform is adding or recognizing an “admin” role for certain external users. The role is described as enabling access to patient information in ways that may reduce reliance on case-by-case approvals.
The Register and The Next Web both describe the change in terms of access to platform components used for data integration and administration, indicating that the new role can bypass standard approval steps. The Canary reports that an investigation led by the Good Law Project frames the access as effectively broader or “unlimited,” based on the same or similar leaked briefing documents.
Patient groups and Labour MPs are cited as expressing concern about the safety and governance of identifiable data under the new arrangement. NHS England’s stated rationale and whether it involves identifiable data access by default are not consistently detailed across reports, but all sources focus on the leaked documentation and the creation of an admin role for contractors.
