Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to raise public awareness and acceptance of the importance of organ donation.

We are supporting a number of initiatives to raise awareness and to encourage more people to consent to organ donation. This will give many more people the opportunity of a transplant. Government funding through NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) supports campaigns to promote public awareness about the importance of organ donation and transplantation.

NHSBT also works collaboratively with a number of partners in the private, public and third sectors to promote organ donation, such as the Boots Advantage Card. People can also add their name to the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR) via Government owned channels such as applying for a driving licence and paying car tax online.

The Department also supports a number of initiatives to raise awareness in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities to become donors. Less than 5% of deceased organ donors are BAME, yet patients from BAME communities represent around a quarter of people waiting for an organ transplant.

Underpinning NHSBT’s work to promote organ donation is encouraging people to join the ODR and to let their families and friends know that they have made a decision to donate. Encouraging this conversation is important as families are more likely to support donation if they know that is what they wanted. This was the focus of National Transplant Week in 2014. Plans for the 2015 event are being developed.