Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department (a) has taken and (b) plans to take to encourage people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities to become organ donors in response to the implementation of the Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Act 2019.

The Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Act 2019 introduced a new system of consent for organ and tissue donation in England, known as ‘opt-out' or ‘deemed consent, from 20 May 2020.

NHS Blood and Transplant launched a public awareness campaign in April 2019 to inform the public about the law change and the choices available to them. A second public awareness campaign in autumn 2020, reached 18 million people. In February 2021, NHS Blood and Transplant launched its Leave Them Certain campaign, to encourage people to talk to their family about organ donation. The campaign includes specific community media for black and South Asian audiences. In addition, NHS Blood and Transplant committed £600,000 in 2020-2021 to run the Community Investment Scheme for a third year, which has funded 35 projects to raise awareness of blood and organ donation in black and Asian communities.