NHS England has agreed to clarify claims regarding the effectiveness of software developed by Palantir following an investigation by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). The regulatory body found that NHS England needed to adjust how it presented data related to the Federated Data Platform (FDP), a system designed to integrate disparate healthcare datasets.

The OSR’s review centered on widely publicized statements claiming that hospitals using Palantir’s FDP had completed 110,000 additional operations and achieved a 15 percent reduction in discharge delays for long-stay patients. An earlier investigation had revealed that NHS England had included a caveat on a methodology webpage, stating that the data did not establish causality due to uncontrolled variables. However, this disclaimer was not prominent in broader public communications.

Since launching its inquiry in June, the OSR uncovered that some hospitals had reported errors in the data underlying the discharge delay improvements after irregularities were flagged. NHS England has now committed to making the caveat more visible on its website and in official communications, as well as providing more detailed trust-level data to improve transparency. The OSR emphasized the need for any figures cited by ministers or in official briefings to be conveyed clearly and accurately, in accordance with the statistical code of practice aimed at maintaining trust and quality in government data.

The investigative scrutiny follows several complaints about NHS England's earlier claims, raising questions about whether they complied with standards for transparency and accuracy in public reporting. The findings have arisen amid ongoing debate over the future of the £350 million Palantir contract, which NHS England awarded nearly three years ago. The deal has been contentious due in part to Palantir’s historical ties to the U.S. defense sector.

Palantir responded to the OSR’s conclusions by affirming its respect for the regulator’s views and acknowledging the presence of uncontrolled variables in the data. The company reiterated that since deployment, NHS trusts using its software reported significant gains including 110,000 more operations performed, a 15 percent decline in discharge delays for long-stay patients, and a 6.8 percent improvement in meeting the NHS’s 28-day Faster Diagnosis Standard for cancer.

NHS England stated that it welcomed the OSR’s review and acknowledged the benefits of heightened clarity in communicating information about the Federated Data Platform. It confirmed that it would fully implement the regulator’s recommendations to enhance transparency and accuracy in public data disclosures.