Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has assessed the potential merits of producing a strategy to support research into the barriers and motivations affecting BAME organ, blood and stem cell donation; and if he will make a statement.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for the collection, manufacturing and issuing of blood products to the National Health Service in England; for organ and tissue donation in the United Kingdom; and for the British Bone Marrow Registry, to which it recruits registered blood donors to be potential stem cell donors.

NHSBT has ongoing strategies to recruit more blood, organ and stem cell donors from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds in order to address the health inequalities faced by patients from those communities. These strategies are informed by research; for example, in 2013 NHSBT commissioned a report by Optimisa Research to understand attitudes and behaviours towards organ donation. Research conducted in 2015 by ESRO Ltd revealed some of the barriers and motivations of people from BAME communities towards blood donation. Copies of these reports are attached.

NHSBT strategies include targeted marketing activity, events, education resources, PR and media work and engagement with faith organisations. The impact of these strategies is evaluated on an ongoing basis to inform future work.

There will be a new national campaign to increase the number of BAME organ donors later this year. The Department sponsors Anthony Nolan and NHSBT to improve equity of access to unrelated donor stem cell transplantation for BAME patients.