Minister admits government spent £5.8 billion on lateral flows imported from China

Minister admits government purchased £5.8 billion worth of lateral flows from China

Asia minister Amanda Milling has admitted that the UK government has purchased £5.8 billion worth of lateral flows imported from China.

She has also failed to clarify whether action is being taken to tackle UK supply chains complicit in Uyghur forced labour in Xinjiang.

On February 9 Milling issued an updated response to the Lords International Relations and Defence committee’s report on UK-China trade relations, the details of which have been released today.

In January the committee requested that Milling provide a more detailed response after they expressed disappointment regarding the initial letter’s lack of detail.

No commitments to planning regarding supply chain vulnerabilities were outlined in the previous response.

The committee also noted that the government did not outline the cost of importing lateral flow tests from China to the UK throughout the pandemic. 

Milling’s updated response contains further clarification on both these points.

She writes that “robust processes are in place to assess and assure critical supply chains”, and that this constitutes a “whole of government effort.” She also admitted that as of 10 January 2022 the government had spent £5.8 billion on lateral flow tests shipped from China.

This would appear to be the first time the government has publicly clarified this figure.

A slew of reports and parliamentary questions have urged for the government to do more to ensure British supply chains are not linked to human rights abuses and forced Uyghur labour in China’s Northwest province of Xinjiang. 

Milling did not make any reference to cracking down on UK private sector links to forced labour in supply chains, despite former foreign secretary Dominic Raab’s vow to do just that last Spring.