Business of the House

Bell Ribeiro-Addy Excerpts

Thursday 17th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I am sorry to hear about the situation in the hon. Member’s constituency. It is one with which I am extremely familiar; in my constituency, dozens and dozens of buildings face many of the same problems. As he says, there have been very serious teething challenges for the Building Safety Regulator in processing its caseload. That is why the Secretary of State recently announced some quite big changes to its leadership, capacity and management; they were laid before this House two or three weeks ago. I am confident that will speed up the cases he describes. We have a remediation action plan as well, and the Secretary of State will come to the House soon to keep us updated.

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Clapham and Brixton Hill) (Lab)]

In April, I raised the issue of the need for blood donations, and of people from diverse communities being turned away. In response to parliamentary questions about diversity and blood referrals, I initially received data, provided by NHS Blood and Transplant, stating that 70% of black blood donors were being turned away for low haemoglobin levels. The Department of Health and Social Care withdrew that data, stating that it was incorrect. Two months and a point of order later, I received new data saying that 40% of black and mixed-heritage blood donors were being turned away for low haemoglobin levels, but that data was not even for the same period.

The NHS needs three blood donations every single minute for people in emergency situations, women who have given birth, and people with blood cancer and conditions such as sickle cell, the fastest growing genetic condition in the country, whose sufferers require specifically matched blood, if they receive donations. On NHS Blood and Transplant’s website, it indicates that it can meet that demand only 50% of the time. When we return from recess, may we have an urgent debate in Government time on what happens the other 50% of the time? Receiving mismatched blood is very, very serious. With increasing demand, we simply cannot afford to turn away blood donors, particularly those from diverse communities.

[Lucy Powell]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that incredibly important issue. I am really sorry to hear that she has had confusing, incorrect or slow responses to parliamentary questions or correspondence from the Department of Health and Social Care. I will certainly take that up for her. She is right that we need as many people as possible giving blood, especially from diverse communities, because we have blood supply shortages. We need to break down the barriers to doing so, which is why her question is so important. I will ensure that she gets a full response.