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."

However, he said he could not guarantee 100% that no one could be identified from the data.

He said data sets including gender, age, month and year of birth, socio-economic status, lifestyle habits, and measures from biological samples were included.

He said it "would be wrong for me to assure 100% and UK Biobank could not assure 100% that you could not identify someone from this, but that would be a very advanced way in which that data would have to be used".

Biobank said "all the data are de-identified; they do not contain any personally identifying information (such as names, addresses, dates of birth, and NHS numbers)".

Data legitimately downloaded by research institutions

Mr Murray said the information had been legitimately downloaded by three research institutions in China.

They have since had their access revoked and the government is working to establish how the breach occurred.

Asked why it had taken a week to reveal the situation, Biobank told Sky News: "We launched an immediate investigation once alerted. This is a complex and evolving situation, as soon as we were in a position to share an accurate update we have done so."

'Clear breach of contract

Professor Sir Rory Collins, chief executive and principal investigator of UK Biobank, said it took the protection of participant data "extremely seriously" and had tightened security.

"Last week, we found that de-identified participant data made available to researchers at three academic institutions were listed for sale on a consumer website in China, owned by Alibaba," he said.

"With support from both the UK and Chinese governments, Alibaba swiftly removed those listings before any sales were made.

"This is a clear breach of the contract signed by these academic institutions and they, along with the individuals involved, have had their access suspended."

He said the charity had temporarily closed access to the research platform.

Adam Hall, 43, from Washington, Tyne and Wear, was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 23 years, at Newcastle Crown Court on Thursday, where he was convicted in March of raping four men and intentionally passing on the virus to three more.

Hall hid his HIV status from partners, failed to take medication to keep his viral load low, then had unprotected sex with men, sometimes raping them.

He was convicted of five counts of rape and seven counts of causing grievous bodily harm - by deliberately infecting younger partners with HIV after meeting them in bars in the Newcastle area or on the Grindr dating app.

Hall's victims were aged from late 20s down to just 15, with the schoolboy finding out he had contracted the virus in a phone call from health professionals moments after he stepped off a school bus.

Two of them were just 17 and 18.

After a four-month trial, Hall became just the second person in the country to be convicted of deliberately infecting other people with HIV.

He denied the charges, even claiming some of his victims wanted to be infected with the virus.

Officers believe he has had sexual contact with further men who have yet to be identified, and had travelled to County Durham, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Manchester, and London.

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Outside court, senior prosecutor Amy Dixon said: "When we looked at all of that surrounding evidence in relation to his sexual activity with the victim-survivors, it was clear that he'd intended to pass on this virus.

"He hadn't just been reckless."

Detective Chief Inspector Emma Smith of Northumbria Police said: "We do believe that there are other men who may have been impacted by Adam Hall's behaviour and could be a victim of crime and we would encourage them to come forward."

She said: "He's shown absolutely no remorse.

"He's never apologised for his behaviour and we've interviewed him on a number of occasions."

She said the criminal case was "complex" and involved 35,000 hours of officers' time, including 450 statements and 37 witnesses who gave evidence.

The case was further complicated by the difficulty of some of the medical evidence that was used to show the strain of HIV that victims contracted was consistent with Hall's, and it involved exploring the victims' sexual history with other partners.

In a statement, one of Hall's victims said: "No one ever betrayed me the way Hall did. The first time Hall raped me I blamed myself.

"Hall left me a broken man, just a shell of who I was, he stripped me down for his own gain. I am a broken man. He changed me as a person, who I was to my core, and he did it all for his own gain."

Police have described him as a "callous and calculating sexual predator" who had shown "absolutely no remorse for the extensive suffering and distress he has caused".

Hall was known on the Newcastle gay and chem sex scene, worked in bars and at a Tyneside sex shop, and had even attempted to set up a charity for people with HIV.

He was diagnosed with HIV in 2010 and could have kept his viral load low with modern treatments.

But in 2016, medical professionals became concerned he was not adhering to his treatment, making him infectious to others he slept with.

Despite being warned, Hall had unprotected sex with men between 2016 and 2023, in some cases raping them.

Prosecutors were sure Hall intended to spread HIV, although he continued to deny it.

Hall was brought to court from prison where he was held on remand, but declined to leave his cell and was sentenced in his absence.

Judge Edward Bindloss deemed Hall "dangerous" before jailing him for life with a minimum term of 23 years and 42 days.

He said: "Refusal to attend today is entirely in keeping with the indifference you have shown to the suffering of others."

Of the victims, the judge said: "All were young men, all had their futures taken away, all deliberately because of you."

Hall was also jailed for drug dealing and failing to reveal his PIN to police.

Newcastle director of public health Professor Alice Wiseman urged people who have had sex with Hall to access confidential health services in their area.

The woman had been separated from her friends on a night out when the trio found her "staggering in the street", alone and "incapacitated", Hove Crown Court heard.

Two of the men took her behind a beach hut where they raped her, and the other went to the location moments later and filmed it.

Ibrahim Alshafe, 25, from Egypt, and Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, from Iran, had both denied two counts each of raping the woman on 4 October last year. They were found guilty.

Egyptian national Karin Al-Danasurt, 20, was also found guilty of all four counts of rape as a secondary party by encouraging and filming the ordeal.

Jurors returned their verdicts in the five-week trial after more than 12 hours of deliberation.

Footage showed the woman falling down twice, jurors were told, with prosecutors describing the alleged attack as "cynical, predatory and callous".

Alshafe was also shown smiling and sticking his tongue out during the assault, as well as slapping the woman in the face.

He and Ahmadi had claimed during the trial the encounter was consensual and that she had approached them along the seafront, kissed and touched them both, mentioned something about sex and took them both to the beach.

Al-Danasurt, who claimed to jurors he attempted to stop the attack by filming it, also denied he spat in the woman's mouth and called her a "dirty b****".

Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters KC had told jurors: "Frankly, to these defendants, the complainant was meat.

"She was repeatedly abused for their sexual gratification and entertainment.

"They wanted sex. and that could be achieved by being with someone who was in no state to resist them."

She said the woman told police she remembered being spat on, kicked, and her throat being grabbed during the attack, as well as men laughing.

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Giving evidence, the woman told the court: "It wasn't consensual... they are evil and they have ruined my life."

Being cross-examined from behind a screen in court, she cried as she said: "It's the filmer's face I see every time I close my eyes, laughing at me."

In a police interview played to jurors, recorded on 13 October 2025, the victim said she had been at a bar with friends until about 3am before heading to a nightclub near the beach.

She said she regained consciousness lying on the beach, and thought she was going to be killed.

In the recording, she said: "I closed my eyes because I thought 'oh my God, they're actually going to kill me', I can hear all these voices and I can't stop them."

The court also heard minutes after leaving the men, the woman spoke to her friends and was described as "wailing and hysterical saying she has been raped".

CCTV footage from a nearby nightclub identified all three suspects, who had scanned their ID cards upon entering the club as part of the venue's own security measures.

They were identified, located and arrested.

Samples of DNA were taken from all three defendants.

DNA from both Alshafe and Ahmadi matched with samples taken from the complainant's body during a forensic medical examination, while Al-Danasurt's was inconclusive.

At the time of the incident, all three defendants knew each other, and were living at hotel accommodation for asylum seekers near Horsham, West Sussex.

Detective Chief Superintendent Richard McDonagh said: "These three predatory men took advantage of an extremely vulnerable woman, subjecting her to a prolonged, harrowing ordeal.

"I do not underestimate the strength and courage it required to report this to the police, and support the investigation as she dealt with the lasting impact of that morning's incident. Thanks to this woman's resolve, we have been able to bring her attackers to justice."

He added: "Women and girls should be able to feel safe in public and in private, at any time of the night or day.

"Brighton is a safe place, but incidents such as this serve as a sobering reminder of why we and our partners work so hard to prevent people from coming to harm, and tirelessly pursue perpetrators should the worst happen."

A further count of "sharing intimate films" without the complainant's consent, which Al-Danasurt faced, was withdrawn on after it was established that the offence could only be tried in a magistrates' court.

The shareholders, who own Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), voted "overwhelmingly" to approve the adoption of the merger agreement with Paramount, WBD said.

A merger of WBD and Paramount Skydance is one of the biggest media deals in history, with significant impacts on TV, filmmaking and the possible future of the cinema.

In total, the deal has been valued at $110bn (£81.4bn) - $31 per WBD share and additional fees.

Thursday's vote was described as "another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction" by WBD.

The deal, it said, "will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders" and will be completed between July and September this year, subject to regulatory approval.

"We will continue to work with Paramount to complete the remaining steps in this process that will create a leading, next-generation media and entertainment company," the statement continued.

Why does it matter?

A combined Warner Bros and Paramount has huge potential to reshape Hollywood and change film and TV production.

Paramount Skydance will now own CNN, as well as CBS News, sparking concern about concentrating news services within a small number of companies.

The company is headed by David Ellison, the son of Trump ally Larry Ellison.

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The blue-eyed and blonde-haired three-year-old vanished on 23 April, 1976, and has never been seen or heard from since.

Police Scotland has issued a fresh appeal for information and has released an image of what he may look like today.

Sandy's younger sister, Donna Davidson, has continually campaigned over the years as part of efforts to solve the mystery and is urging anyone with knowledge of what happened to come forward.

She said: "It is hard after 50 years and distressing that I still don't know what happened to my brother.

"To have no answers to what seems like a thousand questions is beyond heartbreaking.

"Sandy is very much in my thoughts and as a family we are urging anyone who can help to get in touch."

Sandy had been playing in the garden of his grandmother's house in the Bourtreehill area of Irvine along with Donna, then aged two, and the family dog.

It is thought the toddler may have left the garden to follow the pet dog.

Extensive searches were carried out, and over the past five decades there have been multiple appeals and high-profile media campaigns, but to date there has been no trace of him.

The case was even featured on an episode of TV series Missing Children: Lorraine Kelly Investigates back in 2009.

The new image was prepared by the Scottish Police Authority's forensic services.

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Detective Inspector Louise White said: "Sandy remains a missing person and our thoughts are very much with his family on this momentous anniversary of his disappearance.

"It is a very hard time for them.

"Someone must have seen Sandy that day and the answers his family need are out there somewhere. Someone must know something and I would urge them to contact us.

"Even the smallest piece of information could help us find out what happened to Sandy so please get in touch if you can assist.

"Anything new will be thoroughly assessed so contact us on 101 if you have anything to tell us, no matter how insignificant you might think your information is."