Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to increase the number of people registered as organ donors for cornea transplant.

National Health Service Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), the organ donation organisation for the United Kingdom, actively campaigns to promote public awareness about the importance of tissue and organ donation this includes cornea donation.

Current action includes prompting people to sign up to the Organ Donor Registration (ODR) through Government owned channels such as applying for a driving licence and paying car tax online. NHSBT also works with a number of partners in the private, public and third sectors to promote organ donation. This partnership activity includes awareness raising and outreach activity, and mechanisms through which people can join the ODR.

In 2013-14, cornea transplantation helped to restore or improve the sight of 3,724 blind or partially sighted people.