A MAJOR human rights organisation has backed calls to terminate NHS England's contract with US surveillance firm Palantir.
It comes after a Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Committee report warned of the "concerning" reliance the UK Government has on tech firm.
Amnesty International echoed the report, raising concerns about the company "supporting highly controversial policies and activities".
"Palantir has been supplying software to the Israeli military and intelligence services that contribute to Israel’s ongoing genocide, apartheid, and illegal occupation in Gaza," Kristyan Benedict, the organisation's UK crisis response manager said.
"A company profiting from such grave human rights abuses should have no role in our health system or wider public sector.
“Israeli forces have killed over 70,000 Palestinians, including doctors and other medics, and systematically destroyed Gaza's health system.
"Why on earth should the NHS - which exists to protect life - be using software from a company that is contributing to a genocide?"
Palantir, which was co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, has been awarded major contracts by the UK Government, worth a total of £670 million.
This includes a £330m contract with NHS England relating to patient data, and a £240m contract with the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Thiel has come under increasing fire for his comments around the NHS, which he said needed "ripping from the ground" and starting over, along with a 22-point manifesto published by Palantir widely condemned as "evil" and "disturbing".
The DSIT report also stated that "in the United States it has supplied software for that country’s military and immigration services, supporting highly controversial policies and activities.
"Its co-founder has criticised the concept of a national health service and the company has issued a manifesto that makes explicitly political arguments, undermining what the head of their UK and European business told us.
The report made a number of recommendations, including breaking from its NHS contract with Palantir and "either develop an in-house replacement or seek an alternative developed by UK-owned and UK-based providers that are more compatible with UK values".
Amnesty has now supported these calls, with Benedict saying it is "absolutely right to call for Palantir's contract with the NHS to be terminated".
"The Government must act now – terminating its contracts with Palantir and removing the company from every corner of public life – including from our NHS, the Ministry of Defence, and British policing.”
Green MP Sian Berry, told The National: "We have consistently called on the government to end the Palantir contract with the NHS.
"The cosy relationship between tech billionaires and government have been highlighted in recent days by big tech lobbyists Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair.
“We are exposed to huge security risks from our over reliance on foreign tech giants, and the Government must urgently introduce a digital sovereignty strategy to build up our own home-grown tech sector.”
Commenting after the release of the DSIT report, a UK Government spokesperson said: “Digital platforms are already making a real difference to public services, and the NHS Federated Data Platform is joining up care, speeding up cancer diagnoses and ensuring thousands of additional patients can be treated each month, with strict data security requirements in place.
“More broadly, our Roadmap for Digital Government sets out a detailed programme of reform with clear milestones and ongoing progress tracking already in place.
"We are also acting to reduce reliance on any single tech supplier, with protecting citizens' data and ensuring value for taxpayers at the heart of everything we do.
"We welcome the committee's report and will consider its recommendations carefully."
