Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase the number of organ donors.

We are supporting a number of initiatives to raise awareness and to encourage more people to consent to organ donation. Donation and transplant rates have increased steadily since 2007/08 and 2015/16 saw the highest ever deceased donor rate in the United Kingdom with 1,364 deceased donors resulting in 3,529 transplants.

We continue to encourage people to support donation by adding their name to the organ donor register, to tell their family they want to be a donor and by ensuring that we continue to strengthen the donation programme to identify all potential donors and optimise transplantation.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) launched a new UK–wide organ donation and transplantation strategy in July 2013. Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020 identifies the action being taken to increase organ donation and transplantation rates to match world class standards over the next few years.

In July 2015 we launched a modern Organ Donation Register (ODR) system which enables people to make their wishes about donation much clearer and also links with social media and donation partners to make registration easier. NHSBT works collaboratively with a number of partners in the private, public and third sectors to promote organ donation, such as the Boots Advantage Card. People can also add their name to the ODR via Government owned channels such as applying for a driving licence and paying car tax online.

National Organ Donation Week in September focused on encouraging people to start a conversation about organ donation - with their families, friends or colleagues – to make sure those closest to them know they want to be a donor. There are also a number of specific initiatives to raise awareness in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities to become donors. Less than 5% of deceased organ donors are BAME, yet patients from BAME communities represent around a quarter of people waiting for a transplant.