The UK government has six months to decide whether to end its £400m-plus deal with US software firm Palantir to build a "federated data platform" (FDP) for the NHS, as one region, Greater Manchester, continues to reject the technology in favour of its own home-grown system. The dispute has become politically charged, with Palantir's growing role in military and US immigration enforcement fuelling protests, petitions and parliamentary scrutiny, while other European countries also reassess their reliance on the company's technology.

Commissioned in 2023, the FDP is designed to unify fragmented NHS data across care providers, and the NHS says it has already cut waiting times and improved hospital efficiency. However, NHS Greater Manchester's chief data and analytics officer, Matt Hennessey, argues adopting the platform would be "a retrograde step" given the region's existing system is functionally strong and more trusted by clinicians and the public, a claim Palantir and other FDP supporters dispute. Nationally, 139 of roughly 200 NHS trusts and 35 of 36 integrated care boards are now live with the platform, with the government able to trigger early termination of the contract next February rather than let it run until 2031.