Supply of Blood and Blood Products

Wednesday 3rd December 2025 Lords Chamber

Question

15:29

Asked by

[Baroness Hayman]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure the supply of blood and blood products this winter.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)]

My Lords, NHS Blood and Transplant has expanded donation capacity to meet the nation’s needs, opening three new donor centres and additional mobile sessions, adding 3,900 weekly appointments. However, blood stocks remain fragile, and we urgently need more donors, with 71,000 appointments still to fill over the festive period. I urge everyone, including noble Lords, to donate. Noble Lords will have the opportunity at tomorrow’s dedicated parliamentary session in Portcullis House to help to ensure a resilient and reliable blood supply this winter.

[Baroness Hayman (CB)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for that encouraging reply, and particularly for the reinstatement of the parliamentary donation service. However, as she says, this is a very heavy winter season for the NHS. It is a heavy flu season and a heavy holiday season, which puts pressure on donors. Is she confident that she will fill those extra donor slots and that there will be security of supply for the winter? Is she looking at specific campaigns aimed at those of black heritage and younger people, because it is important to get people early? She might remind Members of this House that you can start being a blood donor in your 60s but, if you start earlier than that, you can go on for a while longer.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I certainly echo the noble Baroness’s comments. It is thanks to the generosity of donors—including the noble Baroness herself, who is I know is approaching her 50th donation—that overall blood stocks are at target levels, but she is right about the extra pressures coming through because of winter. The launch of the national campaign to highlight the constant need for blood in this season and to recruit new donors was set under way last month. We also have targeted media campaigns; for example, in areas of the country with larger black heritage communities to highlight the urgent need for more donors from that group.

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

My Lords, I confess to 120 donations and thank the Minister for all the work that she is doing on this, particularly for tomorrow’s session, but she is absolutely right that only a tiny proportion of the population are blood donors. Talking personally, it is not always straightforward for working people to get those appointments. The noble Baroness is right that we are very short on black and ethnic-minority donors. With that thought in mind, would it be possible to look at artificial intelligence to make it easier for working people, particularly from ethnic minorities, to make those appointments during the working day?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Lord is also to be congratulated, of course. As he said, despite our having some 790,000 regular donors, only 2% of the population gives blood, so we are not full up and we look forward to more donors. To the point that the noble Lord raises, which is important, we are increasing capacity for appointments to donate, but we are also looking at additional digital and logistical improvements, including in how people can book appointments. We are also piloting a new appointment reminder and better communications. There is room for improvement, and we are taking those steps. The noble Lord makes very good points in this regard.

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, following on from the previous question, to address the major barrier of donor inconvenience, will the Government look urgently at consulting employers and unions on a national campaign to encourage the adoption of a “donate time” policy, offering a flexible blood break for employees to attend donation sessions during the working day?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

That is part of the potential solution, in addition to where donors go, how they are communicated with and how easily they can make appointments. We will certainly put the noble Lord’s suggestion into the mix; it is certainly something that I have discussed in respect of the Civil Service, and it varies across departments.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, we are seeing reductions in the number of donors, whether it be in blood or in organ donation. Are we not getting to a serious situation where the Government need to think about how they can increase donations to historic levels?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I am not sure that I agree with the reflections of my noble friend, although I do agree that we have a shortfall of some 200,000 donors to shore up and grow our blood supply. As I said, the situation remains fragile, which is why we need more support. We are constantly working to identify gaps and opportunities to strengthen and diversify the donor base through a donor base resilience programme, launched just this year. It is not just numbers; it is also the range of people, as we heard in earlier questions.

[Baroness Watkins of Tavistock (CB)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that during Covid we used non-traditional venues to encourage vaccination? I will give an example that we talk about a lot: football clubs. In Plymouth, that resulted in people who had never been able to see the football club go and get their vaccination. I believe that if we invested heavily in similar approaches, we would get many more young people giving blood. Will the Minister comment on that?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is quite right. We have to go to where people are and not just expect them to come to us, and using a whole range of venues is important, as are mobile donation facilities. This is constantly kept under review: the service is constantly reviewing where the most successful places are and looking at new venues and new opportunities to take up.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, to continue on the line of the noble Baroness, Lady Watkins, I remember that when we were looking at vaccine hesitancy, we looked at how we could reach certain communities—they do not like being called hard to reach because they feel they are being patronised. Quite often, it was through faith organisations; sometimes, it was through community leaders. What work has been done on the lessons learned from the vaccine hesitancy campaigns to encourage more people to give blood? I want also to ask about guidelines. I was speaking to a noble friend who said she had volunteered to give blood but was told that because she had passed the age of 66 and had never given blood in the UK before, she was not allowed to donate. Can we have some clear guidelines for those who are willing to give blood, especially Members of this House?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

Of course, is the answer to the noble Lord. On his point about reaching certain groups, we have invested across 51 organisations this year that are very much rooted in the community, and 31 of the projects across those organisations have worked nationally to boost awareness, understanding and behaviour change in black, Asian, mixed-heritage and minority-ethnic communities, where we need more people to come forward to donate blood in order that we have the blood we need for the conditions that they are there to meet.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, I should admit that I never decided to become a blood donor. Once, when I was at Chatham House, a van from the blood donor service was due to come to St James’s Square the next week and my secretary informed me that she had booked me in to give a donation. I thereafter donated for 20 years. That shows that there are a lot of us who would sort of get round to it if we thought about it, and taking the caravans to businesses and working with the businesses to encourage their members to donate is one way that clearly helps to get passive potential donors to say yes.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Lord gives a good example—sometimes we need other people to sort us out to give blood—but the main point he makes is absolutely right: we need to speak to people through our campaigns. Each donation can save up to three lives. We need to tell people the effect of what they are doing too, and I am glad that we are taking innovative steps to raise awareness, including advertising on London buses.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I thank the Minister for letting me get in just in time. I am interested in plasma. As many noble Lords will be aware, we have been importing 100% of our plasma needs ever since mad cow disease, so it is an area in which we are quite vulnerable and I know the blood services are trying to correct that. Can the Minister give us an update on where we are on that?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

We are making considerable progress in diversifying where plasma comes from. We are also making good progress in demand management and ensuring that there is no waste in blood products, which will also greatly assist us. I shall be pleased to write to the noble Lord with a full description of the advances that we are making; it is an exciting time in that respect.