An open letter asking NHS England to keep its code open

Source: Hacker News

# An open letter asking NHS England to keep its code open

> **Code paid for with public money should be open to the public.**  
> This principle is enshrined in the UK Government Design Principles and the NHS Service Standard. It is now being walked back. We are signing this to restate the case.

[Add your signature →](#sign)

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**Published:** 1 May 2026  
**Status:** Open for signatures

Signatures

74 signatures so far

Contributor	Note
Adam Worley
Adrian Duke	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Alexander Sadler
Andrew Nesbitt
Ashley Heron
Awais Amjad
Ben Graves
Cael O’Sullivan
Cameron Brown
Chris Wait	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Daniel Roe
Dr Cory Doctorow (h.c.)
Donald Harvey
Duncan Mortimer	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
George David Tyson
Kunwar Grover
Hasan Mohsin
Heidar Bernhardsson	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Jamie Downsworth
James Uther
Jeffery Cobblesmith
Joachim Liptrot Sand
John Reilly
Jon Atkinson
Julian Ng
Kevin Marks	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Konstantinos Kapenekakis
Kai James Patient
Robert Lee‑Cann	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Lee Stewart
Lenard Szolnoki
Dave Long	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Louis Escher
Louis Goddard
Dr Luca Cerina
Luke Kirkpatrick
Martin van IJcken	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Matthew Bristow
Mike Wagstaff
Miranda Heath
Misha Gorodnitzky	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Neil Charlton
Chris Poole
Tom Forbes
Owen Jones	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Marcus Baw	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Matias Leandro Capeletto
Paul Robert Lloyd	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Peter Yates	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Richard Harris
Richard Dyce
Richard James Baxter
Robin Whittleton	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Rosia Evans
Sam Cook
Ștefan Ilie
Steve Messer	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Stephen Tordoff
Thomas Leese	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Toby Dimmick
Tom Booth	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Theodor Vararu	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Vad Khory
Vlad‑Stefan Harbuz
Zach Leatherman	Has contributed to UK public‑sector software
Anonymous (× 9)	– Has contributed to UK public‑sector software

Statement

We disagree with the NHS technical leadership’s decision to hide the source code of all of their repositories.

Making code open source requires more work than keeping it closed. That hard work is the point.

It requires a higher bar of quality. It requires processes to proactively find, fix, and monitor for vulnerabilities. It requires identifying risk, and putting barriers in place to contain any damage when things go wrong.

But it works like the human immune system: being exposed to threats hardens the attack surface.

Closed source allows that work to be skipped. It substitutes obscurity for depth, and obscurity buys you precious little when a sufficiently motivated attacker is involved.

Warning
We call on NHS England to withdraw the SDLC‑8 red line and reaffirm its commitment to the NHS Service Standard Principle 12: “Make new source code open.”

If you agree, sign your name using the form below. Submissions are reviewed by hand and you’ll appear on the page once approved.

References

• NHS Goes To War Against Open Source
• NHS England rushes to hide software over AI hacking fears
• NHS Service Standard — Principle 12: Make new source code open
• NHS England quietly removes open source policy web pages (Digital Health)
• Don’t be afraid to code in the open: how to do it securely (GOV.UK)
• Does Mythos mean shutting down your open source repos? (shkspr.mobi)
• Discourse is not going closed source (Discourse)