Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the government of China on the alleged harvesting of organs from Falun Gong prisoners held in China.

I remain concerned by reports of organ harvesting, which we have raised on numerous occasions, including at the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue in April this year.

The Chinese government has repeatedly denied allegations that organs are forcibly removed from detainees. We are aware that organs removed from executed prisoners have been used for human transplantation purposes in China; Chinese law requires that prisoners give prior consent that their organs be used in this way.

We welcome steps taken by the Chinese government in recent years to improve the regulation of organ transplantation, for example the reports that suggest China would stop using organs harvested from executed prisoners from January of this year. Implementation of this policy is an important step.