Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have made any representations to international partners in relation to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China who have been subjected to torture, mass imprisonment, and forced organ extraction.

We are aware of reports claiming that organ harvesting may be taking place in China, including suggestions that minority and religious groups are being specifically targeted.

We consider the Kilgour, Gutmann and Matas report to be important sources of information about China’s organ transplant system. These reports rightly question the lack of transparency in China’s organ transplant system, whilst acknowledging that it is very difficult to identify the source of those organs and verify the number of organ transplants conducted in China.

However, as the Minister for Europe and the Americas said in a Westminster Hall debate in October 2016: “Although I do not doubt the need to maintain close scrutiny of organ transplant practices in China, we believe that the evidence base is not sufficiently strong to substantiate claims about the systematic harvesting of organs from minority groups. Indeed, based on all the evidence available to us, we cannot conclude that this practice of “organ harvesting” is definitely happening in China.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) collates global data on organ donations and works with China. The WHO view is that China is implementing an ethical, voluntary organ transplant system in accordance with international standards, although the WHO does have concerns about overall transparency.

We will continue to review any new evidence that is presented to us.