§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they are aware that the National Blood Transfusion Service policy is not to take blood from prisoners, on the grounds that there is a much higher proportion of prisoners who carry the virus responsible for transmitting jaundice than of the general population; what informaton they have about the proportion of these carriers among inmates and the general population respectively, and whether they will ask the NBTS to consider accepting prisoner donors subject to screening.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Security (Baroness Trumpington)Regional Transfusion Directors (RTDs) have clinical responsibility for the acceptance of blood donors. They do not collect blood from groups known to be at risk from certain diseases.
1269WAI am advised that RTDs in England started to phase out collecting blood from prisoners in 1980. Among the factors which they took into account was the large number of donations from prisoners which routine screening for hepatitis showed could not be used. The available tests are not able to screen for all types of hepatitis virus or the presence of the virus in the early stages of the disease. The primary concern of the National Blood Transfusion Service must be to protect recipients of donated blood.
As collections from prisons have ceased, RTDs no longer have information on the relative proportion of blood donations from the general and prison population which could transmit hepatitis.