L

Lord Kamall (Con)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 16 March 2026

Debate

NHS: In-house Software Capabilities

Contribution

My Lords, there is always a very difficult balance between keeping something in-house or outsourcing it, and we should not forget the national programme for IT in the NHS in the early 2000s, which ended up costing between £10 billion and £20 billion. My question is on the company Palantir. The Minister will be aware that there are a range of views on Palantir. Some say that it is the best software available and that no one can match it; others say that they are worried that it will lock the NHS in long-term and scrape data for other uses. What specific measures have NHS England and the department put in place so that, in the event that the Palantir contract is not renewed, the healthcare system will be able to move seamlessly to another supplier?

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