Ian Murray

Ian Murray

Labour — Edinburgh South

Speaking in the House of Commons on 23 April 2026

Debate

UK Biobank Data

Contribution

I pay tribute to the Belfast universities and the way in which they have advanced research. As has already been mentioned, tens of thousands of individual accredited researchers use UK Biobank regularly, as do thousands of institutions across the globe. We need to ensure that the system is safe, so that volunteers participating in the system can be assured that their data is safe and secured, and that is why it has been paused. The hon. Gentleman challenges me on whether Belfast universities have been affected by this issue. They will be affected by it in the short term, because there is currently no access to the system, but we hope that that will be resolved. I understand from UK Biobank and from officials that they have been in talks with the pharmaceutical industry and researchers in the field to see whether that would cause a problem, and as long as this situation is temporary, it should not. They will technically be affected in the short term until access is fully recovered.

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