Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase stem cell donor registration; and what the levels of stem cell donor registration have been in each year since 2010.

Since 2010, the Department has provided our delivery partners, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) and Anthony Nolan, a total of £16 million in additional, new funding to improve stem cell transplantation. Further funding of £3 million has already been confirmed for 2015-16.

The number of stem cell transplants has increased from 802 in 2010/11 to 1,060 in 2013/14 representing approximately 130 additional lives are being saved each year compared to 2010.

Departmental funding has allowed NHSBT and Anthony Nolan to recruit a panel of over 60,000 young male donors that are much more likely be able to donate bone marrow since 2011. In 2014 the Anthony Nolan and NHS Stem Cell Registry reached the milestone of over one million registered donors.

Departmental investment has also supported the expansion of the NHS Cord Blood Bank that now contains approximately 23,000 stored samples available for transplant and research. Approximately 2,000 samples have been added to the bank every year since 2011. There is a clear target that 40% of cord blood samples should come from minority groups.