Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 April to Question 175561 on Palantir: Databases, for what reason that Answer did not mention the common law duty of confidentiality.

Question 175561 asked about the security of data, therefore, the answer summarised the key legislation and standards to which the Foundry platform conforms. It was not felt necessary to spell out common laws which apply to everyone in the United Kingdom. The common law duty of confidentiality is that the use or disclosure of personal information held in confidence can only happen when there is a lawful basis, or consent has been given, or where there is overriding public interest in the disclosure. The data which the platform collates is data which NHS England has a lawful basis for collecting for its statutory purposes. It cannot be used or disclosed for other purposes, and Palantir do not have access to the data. Therefore, the common law duty of confidentiality is fully respected.