Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of blood donations.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood services in England and is delivering initiatives to increase blood donations. These include:

• increasing awareness of donation through high-profile year-round campaigns including National Blood Week and World Blood Donor Day alongside the use of social media such as TikTok to reach additional audiences;
• using direct marketing, including phone calls, emails, and text messages, to encourage previous donors to book appointments and attend local sessions;
• increasing appointment availability and targeting communities where specific blood types are most needed through initiatives such as the Community Grants Programme, with further information available at the following link:
• https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/how-you-can-help/get-involved/community-grants-programme/; and
• increasing the number of successful donation appointments by: improving pre-donation haemoglobin (Hb) testing, with low‑Hb deferral rates having fallen since the full rollout of new testing in September 2025; implementing a pilot translation service to reduce language‑related deferrals; and enhancing vein-identification training using ethnicity-specific training arms to help staff recognise vein characteristics across different skin tones and body.