Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Act 2019

Tuesday 8 June 2021 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 1 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • The organ donation opt-out system has increased the number of organs available for transplant and is saving hundreds of lives.
  • Since the law changed last year, 296 people in England have donated their organs under the opt-out system, accounting for 29% of the 1,021 donations.
  • NHS Blood and Transplant is working with the wider healthcare sector to restore services to pre-COVID levels.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Dan Jarvis Lab Barnsley North
NHS
Context

The Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Act 2019 was introduced to increase the number of organs available for donation. The questioner wants to assess its effectiveness.

Question

What recent assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Act 2019 in increasing the number of organs available for donation?

Answer from Helen Whately

The organ donation opt-out system has increased the number of organs available for transplant and is saving hundreds of lives. Since the law changed last year, 296 people in England have donated their organs under the opt-out system. These donations account for 29% of the 1,021 donations that took place last year.

Answered
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Q2 Dan Jarvis Lab Barnsley North
NHS
Context

The questioner highlights the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on organ transplant services, noting that May 20 marked one year since Max and Keira's law came into effect. The law aims to save lives through organ donation.

Question

I am grateful to the Minister for that response. She will know that 20 May marked one year since Max and Keira's law came into effect—a change that will give hope and save lives—but despite the tireless efforts of NHS staff, covid has had a devastating impact on patients in need of life-saving operations. Can the Minister outline how she is going to get organ transplant services back to pre-pandemic levels and tell us what additional resources will be committed in order to support an increase in organ availability?

Answer from Helen Whately

I would first like to thank the hon. Member for the part he played in campaigning for this life-saving change to organ donation and bringing about the increase that I mentioned earlier. The current services are now running at pre-covid levels and NHS Blood and Transplant is working with the wider healthcare system to enable as many transplants as possible. The new Organ Donation and Transplantation 2030: Meeting the Need strategy, which was launched last Tuesday, sets out the steps we are taking to increase organ availability further.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The questioner sought specific commitments on additional resources but received only a general statement about existing levels and future strategies without concrete details on new funding or actions.

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