Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to hold a public consultation on organ donation and consent law in England.

A seven year United Kingdom-wide organ donation and transplantation strategy was jointly published by the four UK health ministers and NHS Blood and Transplant in July 2013. The strategy aims to increase consent rates, encourage people to be proud to donate and to make the UK system comparable with the best of the world. In 2015/16, the highest ever deceased donor rate in the UK was recorded with 1,364 deceased donors resulting in 3,529 transplants.

On 1 December 2015, Wales introduced deemed consent (opt-out) for organ and tissue donation. We will monitor closely how these changes in legislation in Wales affect donation rates.