Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what they are doing to promote organ transplants.

The six years between April 2008 and April 2014 have seen a strengthening of the donation programme; increasing donation rates by 63% and transplant rates by 47%. The number of people registering for organ donation has increased by over 3 million since 2010 to over 20 million.

A new seven year United Kingdom-wide organ donation and transplantation strategy Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020: A UK strategy, was published by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) in July 2013. The strategy sets out proposed action to increase consent rates, optimise donation and increase transplants.

NHSBT continues to raise the profile of organ donation through a number of other ways. For example, people can join the Organ Donor Register online, through Facebook, by phone, post, registering with a general practitioner, a Boots pharmacy loyalty card or when applying for a passport. More people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities are needed to register on the Organ Donor Register and the recently launched Peer Educator Project, sponsored by the Department, training peer educators from the Pakistani Muslim community in Birmingham, is an example of action in this area. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health (Jane Ellison) wrote to all Members during the National Transplant Week to raise the profile and benefits of organ donation and transplantation. The British Kidney Patient Association and NHS Blood and Transplant also held a reception in Parliament.