Chinese firm won multi-million-pound Covid contract ‘despite being behind cyber attacks on the NHS’, minister claims

• Science minister told in 2014 that BGI Group was hacking Genomics England
• In 2021 Chinese firm BGI Genomics won an £11million Covid testing contract 

A Chinese firm was awarded a multi-million-pound government Covid contract despite officials knowing it was behind several cyber attacks on the NHS, a minister has claimed. 

Science minister George Freeman said he was told in 2014 that BGI Group had been hacking Genomics England, a project which uses NHS patient data run by the Department of Health. 

But in 2021 BGI Genomics – a subsidiary of BGI group and China’s leading genomics research company – won an £11million Covid testing contract. 

Mr Freeman said during a Commons debate yesterday: ‘We are now in a global race… with hostile actors who wish to use science and technology to undermine us, or to steal our science and technology for their own use. BGI is clearly one.’ 

BGI Group has strongly denied the claims, saying it has ‘never been, and will never be, involved in ‘hack attacks’ against anyone’. 

Science minister George Freeman said he was told in 2014 that BGI Group had been hacking Genomics England, a project which uses NHS patient data run by the Department of Health

In 2021 BGI Genomics – a subsidiary of BGI group and China’s leading genomics research company – won an £11million Covid testing contract (Pictured: Technicians at BGI lab)

MPs and peers have previously written to the Government urging it to cease all work with the company over security concerns. 

It comes after the US blacklisted several subsidiaries of the company over security concerns about access to genetic data earlier this month. 

Genomics England was set up in 2013 to run the 100,000 Genomes Project, which aimed to sequence data from NHS patients with a rare disease, and patients with cancer. 

Participants gave consent for their genome data to be linked to information about their medical condition and health records. 

BGI Group stressed the firm was not ‘state-owned or state-controlled’, adding: ‘Our lab in the UK has its own local servers, and data processed in the UK remain in the UK and the EU.  

‘BGI Group’s labs meet stringent standards in information security. 

‘In recognising the UK’s global leadership in genomics and life sciences, BGI Group took the strategic decision to invest in the UK before the pandemic. 

‘During Covid we provided PCR testing kits to the UK. BGI will continue to support the UK in improving the health of people.’

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