Supply of Blood and Blood Products

Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd December 2025 Lords Chamber

[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.