NHS England adds caveat to Palantir claims after watchdog investigation

NHS England has qualified its claims about the effectiveness of software built by Palantir after an investigation by the UK statistics watchdog.

The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) said on Wednesday that the health service had agreed to add a key caveat to its main web page acknowledging key data does not prove Palantir’s effectiveness.

The regulator also urged NHSE to ensure its communications about the benefits of Palantir’s software were “clearly and appropriately labelled”, adding it expected the health service to “ensure that any figures cited by ministers or in official briefings about the FDP and its effectiveness are communicated in a clear, accurate manner”.

The findings relate to widely cited claims that hospitals using Palantir’s Federated Data Platform, a system for linking disparate datasets, have delivered 110,000 additional operations and seen a 15 per cent reduction in discharge delays.

The OSR launched its probe after the FT revealed NHSE had quietly added a caveat in recent months to the claims, acknowledging on a webpage explaining the methodology that it could not “draw conclusions about cause and effect as other variables have not been controlled for”.

Since the OSR launched its investigation in late June, a number of hospitals have also admitted to errors in the data behind the discharge delay claims after the FT uncovered dozens of irregularities.

NHSE has agreed to make this same caveat more prominent on its website and in its public communications, to “clearly draw attention” to any changes in methodology, and to publish disaggregated trust-level data to “ensure further transparency”, the regulator said.

There were “several” complaints about the claims made by NHSE, the OSR said, prompting a review of potential violations of the statistical code of practice, a set of standards that promote “trust, transparency and quality” across government.

Some correspondence also raised concerns about whether the culture at NHSE “suppressed criticism” about the FDP, but the OSR said that within the “limited scope” of its investigation it had been “assured of the independence” of the organisation’s statisticians.

The health service has also agreed to update a webpage outlining how individual trusts have used the FDP to “drive innovation and improve care” to make it clear that it has “not authored or verified” these case studies.

Andy Burnham’s new government faces an early decision on the future of the £330mn contract that NHSE awarded to Palantir almost three years ago. The contract has become an increasing source of controversy given the tech company’s ties to the US defence sector.

Donald Campbell, director at tech campaign group Foxglove, said the “damning report” made it clear that the government and Palantir needed to “withdraw these dodgy marketing claims and correct the record”.

The new health secretary Yvette Cooper needed to “ensure that the debate about whether Palantir should have a place in our NHS is conducted based on reliable, verifiable evidence — not spin”, he added.

The OSR has closed its investigation but said it would consider any new information on the issue, adding it had asked NHSE’s head of statistics to provide updates about progress on its new commitments.

NHSE and Palantir have been contacted for comment.