There is no data that can be kept safe. The only solution is to avoid giving it in the first place (as much as possible).

Technology minister Ian Murray told the Commons on Thursday the charity had told the government the data "had been advertised for sale by several sellers on Alibaba's ecommerce platforms in China".

He added the charity had said the data "did not contain participants, names, addresses, contact details or telephone numbers".

The Biobank is the world's most comprehensive dataset of biological health and lifestyle information, and has been used to achieve improvements in the detection and treatment of dementia, cancers and Parkinson's.

Mr Murray said: "The government has spoken to the vendor today, and they did not believe that there were any purchases from the three listings before they were taken down."