Medical information of 500,000 participants of one of the UK's landmark scientific programmes, UK Biobank, were offered for sale online in China, the government has confirmed.
Technology minister Ian Murray said information of all members of the database was found listed for sale on the website Alibaba.
Murray told MPs the charity which runs UK Biobank had told the government about the breach on Monday. He said the information did not include names, addresses, contact details or telephone numbers.
However he said it could include gender, age, month and year of birth, socioeconomic status, lifestyle habits, and measures from biological samples.
The Biobank is a collection of health data offered by volunteers which has been used to help improvements in detection and treatment of dementia, some cancers and Parkinson's.
