Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assurances were given, when the establishment of UK Biobank was announced in 2002, that data would not be given to insurance companies after concerns were raised that it could be used in a discriminatory way.

The assurance that identifiable data will not be shared with any organisation, including insurance companies, was provided to participants at the time of recruitment, and still applies. Members of the public invited to join UK Biobank were given information leaflets and a consent form that stated that de-identified data would be made available to researchers from across industry, academia, charitable and government sectors if the applications met the required thresholds of including a bona fide researcher and doing health-related research in the public good.