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 encourage organ donation.

NHS Blood and Transplant is the organ and tissue donor organisation for the United Kingdom and is responsible for matching and allocating donated organs.

NHS Blood and Transplant is currently implementing the UK-wide ‘Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020’ Strategy (2013), which aims to achieve world class performance in organ donation and transplantation. Objectives include to increase the number of people on the NHS Organ Donor Register to 30 million by 2020; to improve the consent/authorisation rate to 80% by 2020; and to portray donation as a positive step in the grieving process.

While there is an urgent shortage of organs for transplant for people from all backgrounds the problem is particularly acute for black, Asian and minority ethnic patients, who are more likely to need an organ transplant. The Department launched a campaign in July 2018, delivered by NHS Blood and Transplant, with support from the National Black, Asian, Mixed Race and Minority Ethnic Transplant Alliance, to increase donation rates by raising awareness and breaking down barriers to donation within these communities. A toolkit is available at the following link:

http://bit.ly/bameODtoolkit

In addition, the Organ Donation (Deemed Consent Act) 2019 will be introducing a new system of consent for organ and tissue donation in England, from 2020, to help increase the number of donors. NHS Blood and Transplant will launch a 12-month communication campaign before the law comes into force, to raise awareness of the changes and the options available under the new system.