Organ Donation

Duncan Hames Excerpts
Wednesday 9th November 2011

(12 years, 12 months ago)

Westminster Hall
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Duncan Hames Portrait Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)
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I know time is short, Mr Davies, so I will be brief. I want to draw the Minister’s attention to the Sign Up, Speak Up, Save Lives campaign, which is currently featuring in Channel 4’s youth engagement “Battlefront” programme. I am grateful that the Under-Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for Guildford (Anne Milton), has agreed to meet me and Abby and Hope, the young women campaigning to increase the number of people registered on the organ donor register. Given the arguments made in the previous speech, I want to draw everyone’s attention to an alternative suggestion that I have been advocating with Abby and Hope, which is that we use the opportunity afforded by the introduction of individual electoral registration during this Parliament to give all adults the opportunity to join the organ donor register at the same time as they are asked to register to vote.

From the evidence I have seen, it is clear to me that the welcome news about the reduction in fatalities on our roads means that there is a particular need for us to attract young, healthy adults on to the organ donor register. If people get the opportunity to do that with the paperwork that they complete when they join the electoral register, that will be helpful in meeting the objective, which we all share, of encouraging more people to register as organ donors.