A US tech firm which has assisted ICE operations and has links to Israel's genocide in Gaza has won a 10-year contract to manage firearms licenses in the UK.
Palantir, co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, has secured the £9 million contract for services provided primarily to police forces in England and Wales, although it has been reported that it could also be extended to Police Scotland and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The contract covers a replacement for the National Firearms Licensing Management System (NFLMS), which has been in use since the mid-2000s. It will see Palantir software used to create a new system for reviewing firearm license applications.
Alongside its services being used by the police, it will also handle Home Office licensing for explosives, explosive precursors, and poisons.
The procurement notice was published on Monday, days before a Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSIT) Committee report warned of the "concerning" reliance the UK Government has on the tech firm.
Palantir technology has been used by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) to target, identify and locate immigrants.
The firm has also been accused of selling its services to Israel’s IDF and has been identified as “profiting from genocide” in Gaza, according to Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.
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 report warned that the UK Government "appears to be worryingly comfortable" with how dependent the public sector is on a small number of large digital and technology providers, such as Palantir.
Of all the technology providers that the public sector relies on, the committee ruled that "Palantir concerns us most", saying that its presence "represents an unacceptable point of weakness".
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," he added.
Across the UK's public sector, Palantir holds a total of £670m worth of government contracts. This includes a £330m contract with NHS England relating to patient data, and a £240m contract with the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Following the DSIT report, a UK Government spokesperson said: "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."
