Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of blood donors deferred due to (a) low haemoglobin levels and (b) travel to and from other countries in the last 12 months; and if he will provide the ethnic and gender breakdown of donors.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for collecting blood donations across England, in order to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need. NHSBT collects donors’ sex assigned at birth and gender identity; a donor’s sex is recorded as the ways in which blood products are donated and processed differ between those assigned male and female at birth.

Blood donor selection guidelines are in place to ensure donors can donate blood safely and includes minimum haemoglobin (Hb) levels and travel-related restrictions. Where a potential donor does not meet these guidelines, they may be turned away or ‘deferred’.

The attached tables show information on deferrals by ethnicity and sex assigned at birth.