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 information from the Chinese Government on the initial outbreak of covid-19.

As Parliament rose earlier than planned and the first day for answer of this PQ was after the Easter recess, due to the pace of developments during the COVID-19 crisis, I submitted a response by email on 7 April, with the following response. The Table Office have agreed this approach.

We have been in regular contact with the Chinese authorities at all levels since the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak, including on 23 March when the Prime Minister spoke to President Xi Jinping. We have continued to underline the importance of full and open data sharing to advance our understanding of the virus and the global response. We have raised this through our Ambassador in Beijing and in meetings with the Chinese Embassy in London.