🆕 blog!
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blog! “NHS Goes To War Against Open Source”The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories.
Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed Open Source. I spoke to dozens of departments about it, wrote guidance still in use today, and briefed Ministers on why it was so…
Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/
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#government #nhs #OpenSource #politics@Edent And yet NHS adoption of Palantir continues.
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I'm quoted in this article.
NHS England rushes to hide software over AI hacking fears
National Health Service rules state that all software created with public money should be publicly available, but fears of computer-hacking AI models like Mythos have prompted a change in policy
New Scientist (www.newscientist.com)
As I say in the post, if you're in the UK *please* write to your MP about this.
Don't just pontificate online. Write a short email to your MP and tell them you disagree with NHS England's decision to shut down all their Open Source code.
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As I say in the post, if you're in the UK *please* write to your MP about this.
Don't just pontificate online. Write a short email to your MP and tell them you disagree with NHS England's decision to shut down all their Open Source code.
Is the @openrightsgroup going to pick this up? This seems to be within their remit or no? (This question is for the ORG and not the OP.)
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Is the @openrightsgroup going to pick this up? This seems to be within their remit or no? (This question is for the ORG and not the OP.)
@celesteh @Edent @openrightsgroup Never "are <local digital rights group> going to pick this up?" Maybe. But they're always underfinanced and understaffed and already have tons to do.
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R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topicR relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
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@celesteh @Edent @openrightsgroup Never "are <local digital rights group> going to pick this up?" Maybe. But they're always underfinanced and understaffed and already have tons to do.
@sqrt2 @Edent @openrightsgroup
Good point, thank you.
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blog! “NHS Goes To War Against Open Source”
The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories.
Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed Open Source. I spoke to dozens of departments about it, wrote guidance still in use today, and briefed Ministers on why it was so…
Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/
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#government #nhs #OpenSource #politics@Edent Ask yourself (I am not English) do they really want to be under U.S. control?
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blog! “NHS Goes To War Against Open Source”
The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories.
Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed Open Source. I spoke to dozens of departments about it, wrote guidance still in use today, and briefed Ministers on why it was so…
Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/
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#government #nhs #OpenSource #politics@Edent Thank you for highlighting this, and without any unnecessary hyperbole!
A hugely retrograde step; I'll certainly be writing to my MP on the matter.
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blog! “NHS Goes To War Against Open Source”
The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories.
Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed Open Source. I spoke to dozens of departments about it, wrote guidance still in use today, and briefed Ministers on why it was so…
Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/
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#government #nhs #OpenSource #politics@Edent Ugh. Where I work it’s even worse – very little has ever been open sourced, but at least it was easy to share code internally. Recently our internal Gitlab has been reconfigured to remove the ability to set repos to “public” (anyone on the network) or “protected” (anyone signed into Gitlab), and only allow “private” (specific people or groups). Not just “default closed”, but “only closed”.
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blog! “NHS Goes To War Against Open Source”
The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories.
Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed Open Source. I spoke to dozens of departments about it, wrote guidance still in use today, and briefed Ministers on why it was so…
Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/
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#government #nhs #OpenSource #politicsPerhaps Palantir have given Streeting a big lump of money, and told him they don't like open source?
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blog! “NHS Goes To War Against Open Source”
The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories.
Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed Open Source. I spoke to dozens of departments about it, wrote guidance still in use today, and briefed Ministers on why it was so…
Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/
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#government #nhs #OpenSource #politics -
blog! “NHS Goes To War Against Open Source”
The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories.
Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed Open Source. I spoke to dozens of departments about it, wrote guidance still in use today, and briefed Ministers on why it was so…
Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/
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#government #nhs #OpenSource #politics@Edent good thing they are all archived in @swheritage https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/search/?q=GitHub.com%2Fnhse&with_visit=true&with_content=true
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As I say in the post, if you're in the UK *please* write to your MP about this.
Don't just pontificate online. Write a short email to your MP and tell them you disagree with NHS England's decision to shut down all their Open Source code.
@Edent I don't see anything in the article about writing to your MP.
But I've done so anyway. And echoed your concerns at https://danq.me/nhs-england-rushes-to-hide-software-over-ai-hacking-fears
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Perhaps Palantir have given Streeting a big lump of money, and told him they don't like open source?
An overly-cynical take maybe, but open source and open data was heavily promoted at a time when public sector data and code was largely locked away in organisational silos.
Today, alongside open repositories, those assets reside on US-owned cloud platforms (accessible under the Cloud Act) and is routinely shared with analytics specialists like Palantir under contract
If those actors already have access then there is some monopoly benefit in denying access to everyone else.
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As I say in the post, if you're in the UK *please* write to your MP about this.
Don't just pontificate online. Write a short email to your MP and tell them you disagree with NHS England's decision to shut down all their Open Source code.
@Edent although I no longer live in the UK, as a citizen I still elect my MP, so later today I will write to them about it
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@Edent although I no longer live in the UK, as a citizen I still elect my MP, so later today I will write to them about it
@q Much appreciated!
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As I say in the post, if you're in the UK *please* write to your MP about this.
Don't just pontificate online. Write a short email to your MP and tell them you disagree with NHS England's decision to shut down all their Open Source code.
@Edent is this something where non English MPs would still be able to help as it will be devolved?
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@Edent is this something where non English MPs would still be able to help as it will be devolved?
@otfrom I do not know. Health is devolved but, on some matters, they do take the lead from their colleagues in England.
I suggest writing to both your MP and MSP
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Perhaps Palantir have given Streeting a big lump of money, and told him they don't like open source?
@Walrus conspiratorial thinking rarely helps. You can peruse his entry in the Register of Members' Interests if you want to look for evidence.
The truth is likely to be much less exciting - I suspect a manager somewhere has gotten spooked & thinks this will help.
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blog! “NHS Goes To War Against Open Source”
The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories.
Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed Open Source. I spoke to dozens of departments about it, wrote guidance still in use today, and briefed Ministers on why it was so…
Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/
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#government #nhs #OpenSource #politics“There are thousands of NHS repositories on GitHub. The work undertaken to assess all of them and then close them will be massive. And for what?”
“Even if we ignore the impracticality of closing all the code - it is too late! All that code has already been slurped up. If Mythos really is the ultimate hacker, hiding the code now does nothing. It has likely already retained copies of the repositories.”
”And if it were both practical and effective to hide source code - that doesn't matter. These AI tools are just as effective against closed-source. They can analyse binaries and probe websites with ease.”
“There are tens of thousands of NHS website pages which refer to their GitHub repos - will they all need to be updated? What's the cost of that?” -
“There are thousands of NHS repositories on GitHub. The work undertaken to assess all of them and then close them will be massive. And for what?”
“Even if we ignore the impracticality of closing all the code - it is too late! All that code has already been slurped up. If Mythos really is the ultimate hacker, hiding the code now does nothing. It has likely already retained copies of the repositories.”
”And if it were both practical and effective to hide source code - that doesn't matter. These AI tools are just as effective against closed-source. They can analyse binaries and probe websites with ease.”
“There are tens of thousands of NHS website pages which refer to their GitHub repos - will they all need to be updated? What's the cost of that?”“I've no idea what led to NHS England making this retrograde decision - so I've send a Freedom of Information request to find out.
I am convinced that closing all their excellent open source work is the wrong move for the NHS. I hope they see sense and reverse course.”
“Until then, I've helped make sure that every single NHS repository has been backed up and, because the software licence permits it, can be re-published if the original is closed.”
@Edent
