Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the validity of reports of forced organ extraction in China.

We are aware of reports that allege that organ harvesting may be taking place in China, including suggestions that minority and religious groups are being specifically targeted. The British Government continues to take these reports extremely seriously.

These reports include the 2016 update to the Kilgour, Matas and Gutmann report and other information provided so far to the ongoing tribunal organised by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China and chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC. We continue to scrutinise the situation carefully and review new information as it becomes available. At present, however, our assessment is that there is not a strong enough evidential base to substantiate the claim that systematic state-sponsored or sanctioned organ harvesting is taking place in China. We will continue to review any new evidence that is presented to us.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) collates global data on organ donations and works with China through its country office in Beijing. We will update the WHO via our Embassy in Beijing on recent concerns in the UK about reports of organ harvesting in China, including those raised in Parliament.