2026: Week 36 - Health bill and LGR pause....
This week the Government’s Health Bill was debated in Parliament. I had the opportunity to speak a number of times during the debate, with my focus being on data security of such sensitive information.
I have been campaigning for months against the use of Palantir in the NHS , as I don’t feel they offer the best solution for our NHS. The NHS needs a software solution to streamline services and improve data connectivity, but this is not something that Palantir is capable of delivering. Any software should be fully owned and under the full control of the UK, and crucially, it needs to be trusted.
Palantir is contracted to provide software as a service. The initial contract cost the NHS £330 million, which covers developing the system and a subscription to use it, but the NHS does not own the software or the intellectual property that it has paid to have developed.
If the NHS renews the contract, it continues to pay and still owns nothing, putting itself at risk of being locked into one supplier, and having the price hiked massively. This is what has already happened with the MOD’s use of Palantir Software.
Palantir’s NHS Federated Data Platform was meant to deliver 13 core capabilities. According to the NHS and the supplier themselves, after three years, they have partially delivered three or four of them.
In this country we have fantastic companies with the capability to produce the software solutions needed for the NHS, yet the Government are seemingly content to award these important contracts to US companies with no proven background in this field. I will continue to raise the issue and urge the Government to seek and deploy alternatives as the existing contract approaches its renewal point at the start of next year.
It was a great relief when the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government announced a review of the Local Government Reorganisation decisions made earlier this year. Several areas have had their decisions withdrawn completely, whilst 14 other areas have been paused, including the decision which was handed down to Devon.
The decision to split Devon into 4 unitary councils comprising Exeter, Plymouth, Torbay and a rump Devon was, quite frankly, bonkers. Having cities absorbing smaller rural and coastal areas would never foster the best outcomes for those towns and parishes, and leaving the largest, most rural area without any large economic centre was unthinkable.
In Parliament this week I asked the Secretary of State if, during this review, the local MPs will be included and our views taken into consideration. Additionally, I also asked if the costs incurred to date by the current local councils at County and District level will be refunded, as they are currently running into many hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers money, which councils can ill afford to lose.
Finally, last week saw the 25th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack the world has ever seen. Thousands of people lost their lives, both on the day and in the months and years following. I recall standing on the top of the World Trade Centre on a visit to New York, and then a few years later seeing the awful hole of Ground Zero – where the towers used to be.
I am proud that some of our local firefighters lead the memorial stair climb, honouring the brave New York City firefighters who lost their lives saving others.
Like with so many other tragic events, we must not forget and we must strive towards a better world for all.