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The senior NHS England official responsible for the £330m data platform built by Peter Thiel’s Palantir has agreed to be the “guest of honour” at a dinner hosted by the lobbying firm used by the data analytics company.
Ming Tang, NHS England’s director of data and analytics, accepted an invitation to an event in February organized by Global Counsel, a lobbying firm co-founded by former Labor Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson.
Global Counsel’s clients include Palantir, which in November secured a contract worth up to £330m from NHS England to develop a data platform to bring together patient and operational information in real time.
Emails obtained by the Financial Times through a freedom of information request showed that Tang corresponded with a representative of Global Counsel in December about a dinner on February 29 where she was to be the “guest of honour”.
The dinner was held to discuss cancer screening “in light of developments in data and analytics and how they can lead to improvements in current systems,” the representative said in December emails.
According to the correspondence, Tang said it would be “great to catch up” in response to Global Counsel’s request to go over the agenda and logistics in the week leading up to the dinner.
A Palantir representative attended the dinner along with other organizations, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Peter Frankental, Amnesty International’s UK director of trade and human rights, said it was “shocking to see such attempts to wine and dine” Tang.
He added that the revelations stemming from the FOI request “underscore the need to ensure proper transparency in how these contracts are awarded”.
NHS England’s decision to award the Federated Data Platform contract to Palantir was controversial. Some NHS staff and medical unions have raised concerns about its suitability, and privacy campaigners have raised concerns about the tech company’s access to patient data.
According to information published on the NHS England website, it carried out an “independent tendering process” and the selection of the preferred supplier was “the result of an assessment by many different individuals”.
At the time the contract was announced, it said: “No company involved in the Federated Data Platform has access to health and care data without the express permission of the NHS”.
The US data analytics group, co-founded by Thiel in 2003, is known for its links to the defence, security and intelligence sector and has emerged as a major data analytics provider for the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tang was previously slated to be on at least four panels organized by Global Counsel between 2020 and 2022, according to the firm’s promotion, two of which were alongside Palantir representatives.
Global Counsel disclosed lobbying for Palantir Technologies in 2022, according to the official UK lobbyist register. The register does not disclose who and on what issues the company lobbied. Palantir is still a client of Global Counsel, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Global Counsel has been contacted for comment.
Palantir said: “Like many businesses in the UK, our representatives are often invited to networking events hosted by other companies. We believe it is important to be unapologetic about engaging with stakeholders and experts across a range of fields.”
Palantir hired two senior NHS officials ahead of its bid for the Federated Data Platform contract, the Financial Times reported in 2022.
NHS England said it “conducted a fair and transparent procurement process for Federated Data Platform suppliers in line with procurement regulations and has a strict business conduct policy in place to ensure high standards of integrity”.
NHS England added that Tang did not attend any events organized by Global Counsel during the procurement process for the platform between January and November 2023.
NHS rules require officials to disclose offers of hospitality and “avoid situations which could lead to a real or perceived conflict of interest”.