Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on where licenced donor animal blood is sourced from to develop animal blood-enriched agar for use across the NHS; and if he will make a statement about the importance of sustainable national supply of this material

The Department recognises that animal blood-enriched agar is a critical component in microbiological diagnostics, and we recognise the importance of a sustainable and secure supply of such materials.

There are a number of suppliers on NHS Supply Chain’s current framework which offer donor animal blood supply for diagnostic use which support a level of resilience across England. To date there has been no issues with supply.

Where challenges in the supply of key products arise, these would be escalated to the Department’s National Supply Disruption Response, which works collaboratively with suppliers, manufacturers, and system partners to understand the nature of the disruption and to support appropriate mitigations.

The Department does not routinely centrally collect detailed information on the source of the licensed donor animal blood used in the manufacture of blood-enriched agar.