"I take a close interest in human rights and have been working closely with Amnesty International on the situation in China in particular.

"I was instrumental in securing, yesterday, the first meeting between Amnesty and representatives of the government of China, at the London Embassy. I raised the question of abuse and execution of prisoners and organ transplants, and cited the British Transplantation Society report which you sent to Dan Paskins. In response the officials we met said that new guidance has been tightened. Both I and Amnesty are very skeptical about this, both because there is a lot of money to be made out of this, and reports indicate that some prisons in China are run like private fiefdoms, and because there is no opportunity independently to verify what is going on."

The MP continued: "I will certainly do all I can to try to bring these practices to an end. A key demand which could help tackle the abuse of prisoners and other human rights issues is for Amnesty and other human rights organisations to be able to visit China, meet people and make reports. I urged the Minister responding to the debate to raise this and the other human rights issues, when he visits China in the near future."