Blood: Donors

(asked on 15th July 2025) - View Source
Questioner
Bell Ribeiro-Addy Portrait
Bell Ribeiro-Addy
(Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 63048 on Blood: Donors, what the ethnic breakdown is of the 4,493 donors deferred due to travel; and what this is as a proportion of (a) total deferrals and (b) total deferrals per ethnic group.

Answered by
Ashley Dalton Portrait
Ashley Dalton
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 28th July 2025

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for collecting blood donations across England, in order to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need.

From 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025, a total of 4,493 donors deferred due to travel. The following table shows the ethnic breakdown of these deferrals as a proportion of (a) total deferrals and (b) total deferrals per ethnic group:

Ethnicity

Total Deferrals

Deferrals due to Travel

% of Total Deferrals

% Total Deferrals by Ethnicity

Any other Asian background

3,448

63

0.0%

1.8%

Any other Black/African/Caribbean background

724

21

0.0%

2.9%

Any other ethnic group*

1,409

44

0.0%

3.1%

Any other Mixed / Multiple ethnic background

2,114

38

0.0%

1.8%

Any other White background

17,343

273

0.1%

1.6%

Arab

1,005

20

0.0%

2.0%

Asian Bangladeshi

817

11

0.0%

1.3%

Asian Indian

7,176

157

0.1%

2.2%

Asian Pakistani

2,126

232

0.1%

10.9%

Black- African

6,562

265

0.1%

4.0%

Black- Caribbean

3,663

66

0.0%

1.8%

Chinese

1,709

34

0.0%

2.0%

English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British

231,879

3,107

1.1%

1.3%

Mixed White and Asian

2,071

39

0.0%

1.9%

Mixed White and Black African

842

15

0.0%

1.8%

Mixed White and Black Caribbean

2,093

23

0.0%

1.1%

Not Disclosed

1,516

20

0.0%

1.3%

Unknown

880

19

0.0%

2.2%

White Irish

3,634

46

0.0%

1.3%

Grand Total

291,011

4,493

1.5%

1.5%

Source: NHSBT’s centrally held administrative systems, extracted 27 June 2025.

Note: *Any other ethnic group includes Gypsy or Irish Traveller and Roma to comply with small number suppression.

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