Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the need to provide additional kidney organ donation surgery as a result of the change to an opt-out system in Wales; and if he will make a statement.

Government funding to NHS Blood and Transplant enables the provision of the UK National Organ Retrieval Service and ensures that there are fully staffed retrieval teams constantly available to retrieve donated organs from anywhere across the United Kingdom.

Donated kidneys, from wherever they are donated, are offered to transplant centres across the UK. The funding of transplant services lies with UK commissioners.

Over the last eight years organ donation rates have increased by 68% and transplant rates by some 47% giving many more people the opportunity of a transplant. We are monitoring how legislative change in Wales is affecting donation rates but our efforts remain focussed on encouraging donor registration and discussions within families about donation to increase consent rates.