Palantir wins £9M contract to run UK firearms licensing: CIA-backed biz to hold gun, bomb, and poison records

Databases

Pips Accenture and NEC to bag decade-long deal for cops across England, Wales, and beyond

Palantir has secured a £9 million ($12 million) government contract to provide software for managing firearms licensing across the UK. 

The US spy-tech biz will also handle Home Office licensing for explosives, explosive precursors, and poisons. The contract covers a replacement for the National Firearms Licensing Management System (NFLMS), which has been in use since the mid-2000s.

According to a recently published procurement notice, the new system will help 43 Police Forces in England and Wales record how they grant, renew, and revoke firearms licenses. The contract — set to last up to ten years, including possible extensions — could also support Police Scotland and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) if required.

Three companies made the final bid stage, though Accenture and NEC Software lost out. An earlier tender notice valued the deal at £17 million including tax.

The procurement was run by the Police Digital Service, which is responsible for “coordinating, developing, delivering, and managing digital services and solutions”, according to its website. The quango — a “delivery vehicle” for digital strategy in police services — gets funding from grant funding, “pass-through” from commercial activities, membership fees, funded program, and other sources.

It launched plans for the new firearms database last year, in collaboration with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the Home Office. It said it would buy a commercial off-the-shelf solution to replace the legacy NFLMS platform and enable integration with partner agencies and national systems.

Palantir's selection may raise a few eyebrows. The firm was founded with CIA venture capital, and its leadership has courted controversy. CEO Alex Karp, for example, once said Palatir was designed to "power the West to its obvious innate superiority".

Earlier this week, the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee said the government's reliance on Palantir represented an “unacceptable point of weakness.”

The company’s other contract wins include the controversial £330 million NHS Federated Data Platform and the £240 million deal with the Ministry of Defence, awarded without a procurement process. ®