Metropolitan Police: Palantir
The question
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will instruct the Cabinet Office Procurement Review Unit to review the decision of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime not to approve the Metropolitan Police's contract with Palantir.
Answered by Chris Ward
The Procurement Review Unit (PRU) was disbanded on the 1st of April 2026, with the Debarment Review Service (DRS) transferred to the new Government Commercial Agency (GCA). DRS are responsible for conducting investigations into suppliers for potential addition to a centralised debarment list.
The remaining services under the PRU were retained in the Cabinet Office, the Procurement Compliance Service (PCS) and the Public Procurement Review Service (PPRS). PCS and PPRS are responsible for overseeing contracting authorities compliance with the Procurement Act 2023.
Individual contracting authorities, including local government and policing bodies, remain responsible for making detailed assessments of their own commercial requirements and managing their respective contract awards. Neither PCS nor DRS have a mandate to intervene in or review individual commercial decisions or contract awards made by independent authorities. PPRS may review individual contract awards where a complaint is raised by a supplier or supplier’s representative, provided those complaints fall within PPRS’s scope and remit.
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