Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NHS England is taking to ensure that (a) access logs and (b) permissions related to NHS data processed on Palantir platforms are independently auditable.

The NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) is built with robust security and privacy controls to ensure that access to National Health Service data is tightly governed and independently auditable.

All user activity within the FDP environment is logged for auditing purposes. These logs are actively monitored by both Palantir’s UK security team and the NHS Cyber Security Operations Centre, to detect and respond to any malicious activity. Security logs are encrypted at rest and in transit, and stored on a secure Security Information and Event Management server accessible only to authorised personnel.

Access to data within the FDP is governed by strict controls, including the principle of least privilege and mandatory access control systems. Only authorised users are granted access for approved purposes, and all permissions are subject to audit and review. In addition to these technical safeguards, the FDP Associated Services contract includes audit provisions that allow NHS England to validate and confirm that contractual requirements are being met. These rights of audit are standard within NHS commercial agreements and provide assurance that the platform operates in accordance with NHS England’s expectations and legal obligations.