UK statistics regulator tells NHS to tighten Palantir platform claims

The UK’s Office for Statistics Regulation has told NHS England to tighten how it presents claims about the Federated Data Platform, the Palantir-backed health data system being delivered under a £330 million contract. The intervention matters because figures used to promote the platform’s benefits have appeared in ministerial briefings and statements, while NHS England has acknowledged the data does not establish cause and effect.

The regulator said NHS England should ensure that any figures used by ministers or in official communications about the FDP and its effectiveness are presented clearly and accurately. NHS England has accepted that it needs to strengthen caveats around published benefits data and how others interpret it, according to the OSR.

The FDP is based on technology from Palantir, the US data analytics company whose work with intelligence and defense agencies has made its NHS role politically sensitive. NHS England has said that, as of June, 139 trusts were using the FDP and 137 had reported benefits. The OSR’s review focused on whether the statistics being used to support such claims were being communicated with enough context.

The scrutiny followed concerns raised by campaign group Foxglove, which used Freedom of Information requests to challenge the way NHS England and ministers had described the platform’s impact. Foxglove said nearly a third of NHS trusts using Palantir’s health data platform were carrying out fewer patient procedures than before the system went live.

Foxglove also said Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust accounted for 84 percent of the reported reduction in outpatient waiting lists, while only 16 trusts were using the relevant Palantir-provided tool. That sits awkwardly beside broader claims that the FDP was producing benefits across a much larger set of trusts.

One widely cited figure said an Inpatient Care Coordination Solution tool based on the FDP had led to 111,589 additional patients having procedures in operating theatres. In a letter to Health and Social Care Secretary James Murray, Foxglove pointed to NHS England documentation saying it was inappropriate to draw conclusions about cause and effect because other variables had not been controlled for.

The OSR said NHS England added a caveat to its published data on June 6, stating that conclusions about causality could not be drawn. NHS England also updated its methods page. The regulator said the change was welcome, but said it understood why users saw it as a significant shift in how NHS England was communicating FDP benefits.

NHS England has agreed to add further caveats and make clear when public communications rely on before-and-after comparisons rather than causal analysis. It has also commissioned Imperial College London to evaluate the FDP, including OPTICA, a product intended to streamline patient discharge. OPTICA was built on Palantir technology under £60 million of non-competed contracts before being moved into the FDP programme. NHS England said it would publish the evaluation results.

An NHS England spokesperson said the organisation welcomed the OSR review and was implementing the recommendations in full to give more clarity about patient benefits from the technology.

Foxglove advocacy director Donald Campbell called the OSR’s response “damning” and urged the government and Palantir to withdraw what he described as marketing claims and correct the record with Parliament and the media.

This story draws on original reporting from The Register.