MPs question UK's Palantir contracts as Swiss investigation flags concerns

British MPs have raised concerns about the government's contracts with Palantir after an investigation published in Switzerland highlighted based on freedom of information allegations about the suitability and security of its products.

- Aisha Down Deborah Cole

Palantir has been given contracts with the NHS in recent years

The investigation by the Zurich-based research collective WAV and the Swiss online magazine Republik details Palantir’s efforts, over the course of seven years, to sell its products to Swiss federal agencies.

Palantir is a US company that provides software to integrate and analyse data scattered across different systems, such as in the health service. It also provides artificial intelligence-enabled military targeting systems.

The investigation cites an expert report, internal to the Swiss army, that assessed Palantir’s status as a US company as meaning there was a possibility sensitive data shared with it could be accessed by the US government and intelligence services.

British MPs have voiced concerns over the US data company in light of the report.

“Palantir ... is an organisation that the British government, in terms of the NHS, in terms of contracts, should

stay very far away from ... I think the Swiss army is right to be suspicious,” said the Labour MP Clive Lewis.

The government “needs to undertake transparent due diligence” on the conduct of Palantir and other big tech companies, said Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central.