Blood: Donors
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 63048 on Blood: Donors, if she will provide the ethnic breakdown of the 173,574 donors deferred due to Haemoglobin as a proportion of (a) total deferrals and (b) total deferrals per ethnic group.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for collecting blood donations across England, in order to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need. From 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025, a total of 173,574 donors were deferred due to low haemoglobin. The following table shows the ethnic breakdown of these deferrals as a proportion of total deferrals, and the total deferrals per ethnic group:
Ethnicity | Total deferrals | Low haemoglobin deferrals | Percentage of total deferrals | Percentage of total deferrals per ethnicity |
Any other Asian background | 3,448 | 1,737 | 0.6% | 50.4% |
Any other Black/African/Caribbean background | 724 | 460 | 0.2% | 63.5% |
Any other ethnic group | 1,409 | 668 | 0.2% | 47.4% |
Any other mixed/multiple ethnic background | 2,114 | 1,191 | 0.4% | 56.3% |
Any other White background | 17,343 | 9,558 | 3.3% | 55.1% |
Arab | 1,005 | 429 | 0.1% | 42.7% |
Asian Bangladeshi | 817 | 444 | 0.2% | 54.3% |
Asian Indian | 7,176 | 4,367 | 1.5% | 60.9% |
Asian Pakistani | 2,126 | 1,073 | 0.4% | 50.5% |
Black- African | 6,562 | 4,195 | 1.4% | 63.9% |
Black- Caribbean | 3,663 | 2,472 | 0.8% | 67.5% |
Chinese | 1,709 | 921 | 0.3% | 53.9% |
English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British | 231,879 | 139,701 | 48.0% | 60.2% |
Mixed White and Asian | 2,071 | 1,080 | 0.4% | 52.1% |
Mixed White and Black African | 842 | 500 | 0.2% | 59.4% |
Mixed White and Black Caribbean | 2,093 | 1,319 | 0.5% | 63.0% |
Not disclosed | 1,516 | 869 | 0.3% | 57.3% |
Unknown | 880 | 430 | 0.1% | 48.9% |
White Irish | 3,634 | 2,160 | 0.7% | 59.4% |
Total | 291,011 | 173,574 | 59.6% | 59.6% |
Source: data is taken from NHSBT’s centrally held administrative systems, extracted 27 June 2025
Note: ‘Any other ethnic group’ includes Gypsy or Irish Traveller and Roma to comply with small number suppression.
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