Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to encourage (a) men aged 16 to 30 years and (b) people from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds to sign up to the stem cell donor register.

Since 2011 the Department has provided over £26.8 million in financial support to NHS Blood and Transplant and Anthony Nolan to enable the establishment of a unified United Kingdom Stem Cell Registry and improve access to, and outcomes of, stem cell donation.

This includes improving equity of access to unrelated donor stem cell transplantation for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) patients through targeted recruitment to the UK Stem Cell Registry. Current funding includes very specific stipulations about the numbers of newly registered bone marrow donors, and the proportion of umbilical cords stored in the UK Cord Blood Bank that must be from BAME backgrounds (35-40%). The funding also has specific targets about the proportion of young donors, specifically young male donors, due to research identifying that younger donors offer the potential for better patient outcomes and a greater chance of survival.

There are now 1.9 million donors on the UK’s aligned stem cell registry, with 13% of donors from BAME backgrounds. 15% of donors recruited to the registry between 2019-20 were men aged 16-30.