An open letter asking NHS England to keep its code open

keepthingsopen.com
May 1, 2026
2 min read
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Summary
An open letter urges NHS England to maintain public access to its code, emphasizing that software developed with public funds should remain open source. The signatories express disagreement with the decision to conceal the source code of NHS repositories, citing the UK Government Design Principles and the NHS Service Standard.
Key Takeaways
- An open letter urges NHS England to maintain open access to code developed with public funding, aligning with UK Government Design Principles and NHS Service Standards.
- The letter criticizes NHS leadership's decision to conceal source code, arguing that open source promotes higher quality and better security practices.
- The authors assert that closed source software compromises security by avoiding necessary vulnerability management and risk identification processes.
- The letter emphasizes that exposing code to scrutiny strengthens its resilience against attacks, akin to the human immune system.
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