Publicity of the agreement has been steadily increasing over the last few weeks, with calls to consider the risks of allowing Palantir access to public sector data in delivery of the Federated Data Platform (FDP).

The Financial Times has reported that officials are exploring their options in ending the contract. 

A government official commented: “We are confident we could do it if we wanted to”, giving some reassurance of the government’s options.

Mosley has called for the UK government to ignore principal-led activism as the government considers breaking clauses in the £330 million contract which could support early termination.

“Having a review clause in a contract is good and normal practice. However, what some ideologically motivated campaigners are suggesting should happen would harm patient care and prevent some of the biggest challenges facing the NHS from being tackled,” Mosley commented. 

He continued: “That would be a mistake. The clear evidence of the past two years of delivery is that our software is helping. It is forecast to deliver £150m in benefits by the end of the decade, representing a £5 return for every pound spent.”

Speaking to The Guardian, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The NHS Federated Data Platform is helping to join up patient care, increase productivity, speed up cancer diagnosis and ensure thousands of additional patients can be treated each month – with strict requirements in place about data security and confidentiality.

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“Every hospital trust and integrated care board has their own instance of the IT platform, with complete control over who has access.”

However a number of government officials have voiced their concerns.

Martin Wrigley, Liberal Democrat and member of the House of Commons technology committee encouraged contract termination, commenting: “the government needs to procure a new consortium of UK tech experts to build a modular platform to benefit the NHS for years to come”.