Palantir's High Court challenge to the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) over the blocked £50m Metropolitan Police artificial intelligence contract will go to a full hearing in January 2027, after Mr Justice Constable declined the company's request for an earlier trial later this year at a preliminary hearing on 9 July.
The US technology company filed its claim against MOPAC at the High Court in June, seeking a declaration that MOPAC acted unlawfully, an order quashing the decision, and an order that the contract be awarded to Palantir. MOPAC, which is due to file its defence later this month, has said it will oppose the action.
In court documents setting out the claim, Lord Pannick KC said the Met approached Palantir about the contract in April and understood it had been selected as supplier by May, but that press reports on MOPAC's refusal cited concerns about the company's values and ethics. These included an April report in the Guardian quoting a spokesperson for the Mayor of London as saying the Mayor "would have concerns about using public money to support firms who act contrary to London's values".
Lord Pannick argued that MOPAC's assessment of Palantir's values and ethics played an "unlawful and non-transparent role" in the decision-making, that the "irrelevant consideration" amounted to a "manifest error", and that the decision was "irrational, disproportionate, and is based on irrelevant considerations". He also contended that MOPAC's stated grounds - that the Met failed to inform it of the procurement strategy and that the deal did not represent value for money - were "manifestly erroneous", describing it as "inherently implausible" that the selection of Palantir as the best or most economical supplier was incorrect given the Met was advised by specialist procurement lawyers and consultants.
In written submissions, Joseph Barrett KC for MOPAC said Palantir had "provided no evidence whatever" to support its claims, and that the decision not to approve the deal was "obviously within the range of options" open to the body. He added that MOPAC and the Met were "working together on a new, competitive procurement" for the contract, in which Palantir was "free, and indeed positively welcomed, to participate".
Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime Kaya Comer-Schwartz refused approval for the contract - worth £25.3m in 2026/27 with an optional £24.8m one-year extension - in May, with the Mayor's office saying the Met did not present its procurement strategy for approval as required and fully engaged with only one potential supplier. In her letter to Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, Comer-Schwartz described the failure as "a clear and serious breach of the applicable procedural requirements".
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said the Deputy Mayor had declined approval for the Met to award a contract worth up to £50m to deliver a system called Unified Operational Analytics, adding: "We continue to robustly defend this decision, made in line with our statutory responsibilities."
In June, The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Mark Rowley, warned of potential cuts to frontline police services and officer numbers following the decision, saying any new procurement meeting MOPAC's expectations was likely to take at least a number of months. In his written report to the London Policing Board on 11 June, the Commissioner said the delivery of around 500 full-time equivalent reductions covered by the UOA programme was now at risk.
