The Good Regulation Undertaking has taken authorized motion over NHS England’s closely redacted contract with US knowledge large Palantir, which was chosen in November to function the brand new Federated Knowledge Platform for the well being service.
Digital Well being Information has beforehand reported that greater than 70% of the contract, which was printed on the federal government register in late December, was blacked out. The document blacks out a piece on the safety of private knowledge, references to monetary stories on the FDP and when they need to be supplied in addition to particulars about key personnel and their roles and duties.
In a press launch, the Good Regulation Undertaking mentioned its pre-action protocol letter to NHSE argued that “these full web page redactions are illegal and flout the Authorities’s transparency tips as no reasoning is given behind them – in keeping with the Freedom of Data Act.”
Good Regulation Undertaking Authorized Supervisor Ian Browne mentioned: “The size of unjustified redactions in these contracts is kind of astounding. Authorities defence contracts have fewer blacked-out pages. Our medical knowledge would possibly now be flowing extra freely than ever earlier than, however the public deserves to see the phrases on which these tech giants will probably be processing and utilizing it.
“We beforehand raised issues about how present transparency points over how NHS affected person data are dealt with would worsen with Palantir on the helm of the Federated Knowledge Platform. We’ve been proved proper and now NHS England should act”.
The press launch mentioned that Good Regulation Undertaking can also be difficult NHS England over the large-scale redactions in its contract with the bio-tech firm, IQVIA, to offer ‘Privateness Enhancing Expertise’ which will probably be used with Palantir’s Federated Knowledge Platform. Round three-quarters of this contract is totally blanked out.
An NHS spokesperson mentioned: “NHS England has obtained a pre-action protocol letter and will probably be responding formally sooner or later.”
The most recent authorized problem over FDP comes a month after NHSE mentioned it could examine whether or not Palantir violated the phrases of its contract to run the platform by launching a covert influencer marketing campaign focusing on the Good Regulation Undertaking.
The awarding of the FDP contract to Palantir, and the procurement course of that preceded it, provoked widespread controversy, with issues raised concerning the opaque nature of the tender course of and Palantir’s apparently advantageous place.
Within the months instantly main as much as the contract award, critics of the FDP course of targeted on issues concerning the future integrity of well being knowledge; the stress apparently contributed to a dedication by NHSE’s Transformation Directorate in late September to a deliberate public engagement program on NHS use of knowledge after the FDP tender. It mentioned it expects to carry occasions by means of 2024 and 2025.