All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Ethnicity Transplantation and Transfusion Inquiry: Ensuring a resilient and sustainable UK stem cell supply for all

Purpose and background

This inquiry will investigate the reasons behind the declining use of UK stem cell donors and cord blood stem cells in providing life-saving stem cell transplants for UK blood cancer and other patients. This issue is of particular concern to this APPG because of the consequent health inequalities facing minority ethnic and mixed-heritage patients needing a stem cell transplant in the UK. Stem cell donations provide life-saving transplants for patients with blood cancer and other conditions but minority ethnic patients only have a 37% chance of getting a well-matched donor as opposed to 72% of patients of northern European heritage. The odds for mixed heritage patients are even lower.

In 2024-25 the UK imported 76% of the unrelated stem cell donations used in transplanting UK patients. This is a large and rapid increase compared to 58% in 2017-18, in comparison with the significantly lower percentage of UK imports for blood products (0.01%) and organs (0.7%). The UK Stem Cell Strategic Forum has recommended a resilient and sustainable UK stem cell supply of 45% UK donors for UK patients. Stem cell imports cost more, importation introduces supply chain risks and also diverts support from UK registries and UK expertise. Rebuilding UK resilience in this national resource is long overdue and understanding the reasons for the decline is the first step.

Call for evidence

The Inquiry wishes to understand: "What has changed since 2017-18 when 42% of stem cell transplants for UK patients came from UK donors?".

Following receipt of written evidence, The APPG intends to hold two evidence sessions on 27 October: one to look at issues facing stem cell supply and the other to focus on the use of stem cells for transplant.

The APPG is asking for written evidence on these two areas by 24th September 2025:

1. UK Stem cell supply
2. Factors influencing decisions about donor selection -clinician’s and commissioners’ perspective.

How to respond to the call for evidence:

To submit evidence to the Inquiry, please email your submission in a word document (and/or video /audio link) to the APPG secretariat via Jonathan Graves (jngrvs@live.com) by noon on Wednesday 24 September.

For more information view the full briefing document here. 

Next steps

A Parliamentary panel will gather oral evidence, chaired by the APPG chair, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, and hear from selected witnesses on Monday 27 October. The APPG intends to publish a report with recommendations for action as soon as possible thereafter

The NBTA provides secretariat services to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Ethnicity Transplantation and Transfusion.

The Group was first established on 6 December 2022 and was initially Chaired by Sarah Olney MP, with the charity, Team Margot Foundation providing secretariat support. Following the announcement of the General Election, the Group ceased to exist on 30 May 2024.