BREAKING: We're taking the government to court over Palantir

Peter Thiel's surveillance firm is embedded in the NHS. Wes Streeting won't show us the briefings - so we have launched a legal challenge.

Democracy for Sale exists to shine a light in dark places. Today we’re doing exactly that - in court.

Last March we filed a Freedom of Information request for the crucial ministerial briefings sent to health secretary Wes Streeting about Palantir’s £330m NHS contract.

Palantir isn’t a healthcare company. It’s a defence and surveillance firm owned by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, wired into Trump’s White House and its ICE deportation machine. Doctors and the British Medical Association have warned against handing sensitive health infrastructure to a company like this.

The government’s response? Trust us. No, you can’t see the papers.

So we’ve teamed up with lawyers at the Good Law Project and Landmark Chambers to fight this secrecy at the Information Tribunal. We deserve to know what taxpayers’ money is being spent on - and how our critical health data is being used.

We have just filed our appeal. We have been pushing for these documents for over a year, but the case has a long way to run - but we will keep fighting for transparency.

The legal case comes out of our ongoing investigation into Palantir. As part of this, we have been seeking access to internal government documents about Palantir’s software, which were prepared by civil servants for health secretary Wes Streeting and his ministers.

On 18 March 2025 we made a request to the Department for Health and Social Care for the “ministerial submissions” about the Federated Data Platform (the software Palantir is commissioned to build) sent to health ministers.

The department confirmed that two submissions exist. But it refused to provide them, claiming that disclosure “could prejudice good working relationships and the neutrality of civil servants”.

We appealed and DHSC refused, again, so we then lodged a complaint with the Information Commissioner in August.

Last month the commissioner sided with DHSC, claiming that ministers needed a “safe space” to develop policy.

We disagree. We think the public interest in understanding what Palantir is doing with taxpayer money and sensitive NHS data is exceptionally strong. Full disclosure is urgently required.