Asked by: 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, How many blood donations were a)completed and b) deffered between a) 1st June 2024 - 31st May 2025 and b) 1 June 2025–31 May 2026, and whether he will provide the gender and ethnic breakdown of donors.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: 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, What was the gender and ethnic breakdown of donations deffered due to low Hb levels for the period between a) 1st June 2024 - 31st May 2025 and b) 1 June 2025–31 May 2026.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: 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, with reference to the Answer of 7 July 2026 to Question 15439, which national clinical guideline or professional standard sets out the requirement for healthcare providers to evaluate a patient's comorbidities, psychiatric history and risk of adverse drug reactions before initiating preventive migraine treatment; and where in that guideline or standard the requirement is stated.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: 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, Whether he will provide the gender and ethnicity breakdown of donations a) completed and b) deferred at each donation centre in the UK for the periods between a) 1st June 2024 - 31st May 2025 and b) 1 June 2025–31 May 2026.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for collecting blood donations across England, to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need. NHSBT currently operates 79 blood donation "teams" comprising fixed donation sites, known as donor centres, and mobile collection teams that serve venues within a community.
The attached tables show completed donations and deferrals by donation centre or team, broken down by ethnicity and sex assigned at birth.
NHSBT collects donors’ sex assigned at birth and their gender identity. A donor’s sex is recorded as the ways in which blood products are donated and processed differ between those assigned male and female at birth.
For ethnicity, data has been provided at the high-level ethnic group category due to the size of the dataset and the number of records that would otherwise require suppression because of small numbers. A table mapping detailed ethnicity categories to ethnic groups is included in the attached file.
Where values are greater than zero but less than five, they have been suppressed, displayed as “c”, and the associated percentages have been left blank. For each centre, the values for the ethnicity with the next smallest donation or deferral figure have also been suppressed.
During the period covered by this dataset, the following operational changes took place:
Brixton Donor Centre opened on 16 December 2024;
Brighton Donor Centre opened on 22 September 2025;
Brighton Mobile Team ceased operating on 21 September 2025 following the opening of Brighton Donor Centre; and
Wolverhampton Mobile Team began operating on 17 November 2025.
The source of the statistics is the NHSBT Deferrals Dashboard, extracted 20 July 2026.
Asked by: 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, With reference to the answer recieved on the 30th April 2025 to question 45858 on Blood: Donations, whether he will provide a progress update on work to evaluate potential new tests for infections.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood donation services in England.
Blood donor selection guidelines are developed by the Joint United Kingdom Blood Transfusion and Tissue Transplantation Services Professional Advisory Committee (JPAC), which reviews evidence on disease outbreaks worldwide, including travel-related risks.
Assessment of a donor’s travel history helps reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections. NHSBT implements JPAC’s guidelines and works with JPAC, the UK Health Security Agency, and the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs to ensure blood safety.
NHSBT routinely monitors developments in science and technology to assess whether innovations could further improve blood safety and sufficiency and/or the donor experience.
Since January 2026, NHSBT has been evaluating two new commercial malaria tests to assess whether they may be suitable for blood donor screening. Current UK guidelines require malaria screening using serological testing. Any changes to donor testing or eligibility requirements would need to be supported by robust scientific evidence, a cost-benefit analysis, and consideration through the established UK governance processes.
Asked by: 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, Of the blood donations completed between 1 June 2025–31 May 2026, how many were repeat donors.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for collecting blood donations across England, to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need. The following table shows data for repeat donors and all whole blood donors:
| Total donors | Percentage of all donors | Total donations provided | Percentage of all whole blood donations |
Repeat donors, or those donating twice or more in the time period | 373,678 | 44.7% | 955,896 | 67.4% |
All whole blood donors | 835,631 |
| 1,417,849 |
|
Source: NHSBT Collections Dashboard, extracted 20 July 2026.
For this analysis, repeat donors are donors who made at least two whole blood donations between 1 June 2025 and 31 May 2026. This differs from NHSBT's definition of a regular donor, which is a donor who had made a successful whole blood donation within the two years preceding their latest donation. There were 625,411 NHSBT regular donors who completed 1,207,623 donations between 1 June 2025 and 31 May 2026. All whole blood donors includes all donors who donated during the period, including first-time and repeat donors. Total donations refers to the number of whole blood donations collected during the period, while total donors refers to the number of unique donors who donated.
It is the intention of NHSBT to start publishing relevant data in this area on a more regular basis in future as part of its official statistical publications.
Asked by: 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, with reference to the Answer of 21 May 2026 to Question 2142 on Blood: Donors, how does the number of blood donors with the RO subtype who completed donations in the 12 month period compare with the number of donations completed by this group in the same 12 month period the year prior.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for collecting blood donations across England, in order to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need.
Between 1 May 2025 and 30 April 2026, 27,984 donors with Ro subtype blood completed at least one blood donation. This data was extracted from NHSBT’s Monthly Collections Dashboard on 20 May 2026.
Between 1 May 2024 and 30 April 2025, 26,675 donors with Ro subtype blood completed at least one blood donation. This data was extracted from NHSBT’s Monthly Collections Dashboard on 17 July 2026.
It is the intention of NHSBT to start publishing relevant data in this area on a more regular basis in future as part of its official statistical publications.
Asked by: 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, Whether he will provide the monthly breakdown of blood donation appointments attended between a) 1st June 2024 - 31st May 2025 and b) 1 June 2025–31 May 2026.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for collecting blood donations across England to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need.
The following table shows the number of attendances at whole blood donation sessions, regardless of donation outcome, between 1 June 2024 and 31 May 2025:
Month | Total attendances |
June 2024 | 142,967 |
July 2024 | 154,749 |
August 2024 | 156,863 |
September 2024 | 140,093 |
October 2024 | 148,950 |
November 2024 | 137,724 |
December 2024 | 134,515 |
January 2025 | 152,258 |
February 2025 | 133,300 |
March 2025 | 141,143 |
April 2025 | 142,141 |
May 2025 | 145,042 |
Total | 1,729,745 |
In addition, the following table shows the number of attendances at whole blood donation sessions, regardless of donation outcome, between 1 June 2025 and 31 May 2026:
Month | Total attendances |
June 2025 | 152,292 |
July 2025 | 155,907 |
August 2025 | 138,782 |
September 2025 | 138,394 |
October 2025 | 144,710 |
November 2025 | 132,211 |
December 2025 | 140,490 |
January 2026 | 137,741 |
February 2026 | 124,913 |
March 2026 | 135,155 |
April 2026 | 139,376 |
May 2026 | 132,772 |
Total | 1,672,743 |
Source: NHSBT Deferrals Dashboard, extracted 20 July 2026.
It is the intention of NHSBT to start publishing relevant data in this area on a more regular basis in future as part of its official statistical publications.
Asked by: 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, What steps are taken to encourage women to donate during the follicular stage of their menstrual cycle.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for collecting blood donations in England to meet patient need.
NHSBT encourages all eligible donors to donate when it is safe to do so and follows donor selection guidelines developed by the Joint UK Blood Transfusion and Tissue Transplantation Services Professional Advisory Committee (JPAC), which are regularly reviewed and updated.
The JPAC guidelines do not distinguish between stages of the menstrual cycle, such as the follicular or luteal phase. Instead, donor suitability is assessed on an individual basis, including haemoglobin testing before donation.
Information on menstruation and blood donation is available on JPAC and NHSBT websites, at the following two links:
https://www.jpac.org.uk/guidelines/wb/index/periods/
https://my.blood.co.uk/eligibility/health/article/?id=00045p08&title=Menstruation+%3A+Periods
Asked by: 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, how many and what proportion of blood donors with Ro blood type have had their donations deferred in the period between 1 May 2025 and 30 April 2026; and what was the reason for those deferrals.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for collecting blood donations across England, in order to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need.
Between 1 May 2025 and 30 April 2026, there were 60,928 attendances by Ro blood type donors at blood donation appointments in England, 8,021 of which resulted in deferral. This represents 13.2% of Ro donor attendances.
The following table shows the number of Ro donor deferrals, the percentage of Ro donor attendances, and the percentage of total Ro deferrals, broken down by the reason for deferral:
Reason | Number of Ro donor deferrals | Percentage of Ro donor attendances | Percentage of total Ro deferrals |
Administrative | 218 | 0.4% | 2.7% |
Blood Pressure | 59 | 0.1% | 0.7% |
Clinical | 84 | 0.1% | 1.0% |
Haemoglobin | 4588 | 7.5% | 57.2% |
Infection/Contact | 502 | 0.8% | 6.3% |
Medical | 1447 | 2.4% | 18.0% |
No Suitable Vein | 220 | 0.4% | 2.7% |
Other | 308 | 0.5% | 3.8% |
Skin Piercing | 267 | 0.4% | 3.3% |
Surgery | 94 | 0.2% | 1.2% |
Travel/Malaria | 194 | 0.3% | 2.4% |
Vaccination | 40 | 0.1% | 0.5% |
Total | 8021 | 13.2% | 100.0% |
This data is from NHSBT’s Deferrals Dashboard and was extracted on 17 July 2026. It refers to whole blood donors only and does not include plasma or platelet donors.
The broad deferral reasons above cover a range of more specific reasons for deferral. A more detailed breakdown cannot be provided without accessing individual donor records.
It is the intention of NHSBT to start publishing relevant data in this area on a more regular basis in future as part of its official statistical publications.