Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 28 October 2021 to Question 62745 on Department of Health and Social Care: BGI Group and the contract award National Microbiology Framework - Lot 1: Diagnostic Goods and Services, published by the UK Health Security Agency (HSA), whether his Department has a direct working relationship, including on contractual or commercial terms, with the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) or any of its subsidiaries; and whether his Department has made an assessment of any potential security implications of the relationship between the HSA and the BGI for his Department.

In the previous response of 28 October 2021, we incorrectly stated that neither the Department nor the former Public Health England had any collaborative, commercial or contractual links to the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) or its subsidiaries. However, BGI Genomics were awarded a call-off contract in August 2021. This contract lapsed on 14 November 2021 and no further contract with BGI has been let. We have corrected the record via a Written Ministerial Statement (HCWS795) on 27 April.

Through the National Microbiology Framework, there is a transactional relationship with this supplier. No specific security implications were identified in the procurement, other than standard provisions relating to the General Data Protection Regulation and information and digital security, which are provisioned for in the contracts. In the National Microbiology Framework, a procuring body may include additional security requirements as appropriate for that procurement.