The following table shows funds spent on marketing activities to attract blood donors in England and North Wales between 2001-02 (the earliest date for which complete data are available as before then figures were not collated centrally) and 2008-09. Costs given include media advertising; direct marketing; external marketing services; campaign events; donor awards; promotional items; and public relations activities.
Cost (£)1 2001-02 10,475,238 2002-03 10,745,007 2003-04 11,127,532 2004-05 11,341,616 2005-06 11,780,854 2006-07 12,523,837 2007-08 213,967,051 2008-09 214,453,533 1 Figures given relate solely to expenditure by the National Blood Service (part of NHS Blood and Transplant). The promotion of blood donation in South Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the separate UK blood services which operate in those areas. 2 Figures for 2007-08 and 2008-09 reflect the cost of promoting both blood and organ donation. In October 2005, the National Blood Service and UK Transplant merged to become one special health authority, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT). Accounting systems were subsequently amalgamated, and the cost of promoting blood donation is no longer recorded separately.
The following table shows the total number of blood donors recorded in June of the last eight calendar years, broken down by region into the north (incorporating North Wales); south-east; and south-west; and the percentage of blood donors as a proportion of the total population of England. 2001 is the earliest year for which complete data are available, as before then data was not collated centrally.
North South West South East Total blood donors Population (million, England) Blood donors—percentage of population 2001 677,554 517,873 619,911 1,815,338 49.1 3.7 2002 665,724 509,497 614,398 1,789,619 49.7 3.6 2003 602,121 492,519 588,549 1,683,189 49.9 3.4 2004 581,113 472,720 553,801 1,607,634 50.1 3.2 2005 584,661 474,457 537,951 1,597,069 50.5 3.2 2006 541,098 440,019 499,681 1,480,798 50.8 2.9 2007 511,800 418,225 462,059 1,392,084 51.1 2.7 2008 514,983 430,107 466,807 1,411,897 51.5 2.7 2009 512,031 448,647 449,028 1,409,706 51.7 2.7
The corresponding figures for people on the bone marrow registry is not currently collated centrally. However NHS Blood and Transplant is currently in the process of migrating these data to a central system and a copy of these figures will be placed in the Library.