2. Will the First Minister make a statement on organ donation rates in Wales? OAQ54696

Thank you. We are proud to be the first country in the UK to introduce a system of deemed consent. Last year saw the highest ever number of organ donors in Wales and the highest consent rate in the UK, at 77 per cent.

Diolch. As you've said, Wales has the highest organ donor rates in the United Kingdom and this is a huge success story. As the Minister will be aware, one individual donating their organs can transform the lives of eight other people at least. So, can I ask what more is the Welsh Government doing to promote organ donation within families to address the small number of family refusals for organ donation? And also, with organs from Welsh donors being part of a pan-European database of organs, what discussions have you had about any post-Brexit challenges? 

Well, the Member will know, on Brexit, it's one of the issues of concern that we've raised about tissue transfer between different European nations, and that's still unresolved. We don't yet know about our future relationship with Europe, and I'm very clear about what that relationship should be.

On your broader points, though, about organ donation specifically here in Wales, I continue to fund, as the health Minister, the annual and ongoing communications campaign and, in the last two years, we have made a particular point of wanting to encourage people to have that conversation with their family and their loved ones, so that their voice, their choice and their preference is respected should they be in a position to become an organ donor. And, actually, the feedback from that has been really positive, and it demonstrates there's still a very high level of understanding of the system here in Wales shown by the number of people that are positively opting in to the register to register the choice to become an organ donor. 

Obviously, organ donation requires a huge amount of professionalism and dedication from the staff involved in that particular field of medicine. Our staff are the backbone of the NHS, health Minister, as you, hopefully, will agree with me. Would you, therefore, offer an apology today for your party's actions in their party political broadcast by using an actress to mimic a nurse's remarks when this is totally misleading and actually impinges on the professionalism of the health workers who work across our wonderful health service? 

I think there are two issues here. The first is that my party, not the Government, but my party acted promptly when discovering that the production firm had, without the agreement of the Labour Party, used an actor in the party political broadcast. That has been withdrawn and is not being circulated. The second point is that having made a point about wanting to praise staff within the NHS, to then segue into a rather cheap shot about the health service I really don't think does you many favours at all. And, in fact, in this area of organ donation, the transplant unit in Cardiff is one of the most innovative centres within the UK. It has a high satisfaction rate, a high quality rate and, for example, is engaged in arrangements taking forward the ability to transplant—for example, the work they're doing on people with hepatitis C.

I think, actually, if you want to underscore the value of our staff within the national health service, you look again at the way in which you talk about the health service and the way in which you choose to talk about the investment that we continue to make in our national health service here in Wales.