§ Mr. ChurchillTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent so far this year in the campaign to promote the national organ donor register; what has been the response; how many and what proportion of responses are currently awaiting processing; what steps she proposes to take to expedite processing; and what plans she has to carry forward this campaign. [24717]
§ Mr. SackvilleSome £1.53 million was spent in 1994–95 on publicity material and activities to promote the national health service organ donor register which was launched in October 1994. Over 1,300,0001 applications to join the register have been received so far, of which 172W nearly 270,000 were received and processed in April. On 12 May, some 86,000 postal applications, 6.5 per cent. of the total applications received, were waiting to be processed. Temporary staff were recruited from April mainly to help process the surge of applications following the March publicity campaign. The register will continue to be promoted in 1995–96.
1Includes about 400,000 transferred from the lifeline Wales register.