Guidance

Blood donor survey overview

Updated 22 April 2024

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), in collaboration with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) and the University of Nottingham (UoN), is carrying out a confidential online survey to understand what blood donors think about the questions they were asked when they came to donate, and how the questions are working to keep the blood supply safe. A random sample of donors who have donated in the past 4 to 8 weeks have been invited to take part in the survey.

Since 2021, the pre-donation questions have been changed and some new questions, based on an individual’s own sexual experience, have been added. This was done on advice from the ‘For the Assessment of Individualised Risk’ (FAIR) steering group. Answering these questions before giving blood makes a big difference to patient safety and helps to prevent things from going wrong.

How donors are contacted to participate

Donors are invited via email in line with normal donor communications, as part of service evaluation.

What the survey asks

The survey asks questions about the donors’ experiences, including:

• health and lifestyle
• sexual behaviours
• why they choose to donate
• views on the change to more individualised donor selection policy

How the survey works

Donors across the UK and Republic of Ireland are being invited to take part in the survey using the link emailed to them by their blood service. This link takes them to the survey hosted by UKHSA. UKHSA have not been given any personal identifiable details about the donors and will not ask for them in the survey. The responses to the survey are confidential and cannot be used to identify responders in any way. The survey takes around 10 minutes to complete.

The survey will not retain any computer IP addresses (the code that identifies a particular computer on the internet). The internet browser will not retain the survey answers. We ask that donors complete the survey in one go, as responses can’t be saved and returned to later.

Donors must formally agree to participate before they can start to answer the survey questions. Once submitted, survey responses cannot be removed or amended as the survey team will not be able to identify answers from individual donors.

How the information will be used

The information from the survey will be used to assess the impact of the new questions. We will aim to:

• describe the diversity of blood donors, including their sexuality, to assess inclusivity
• gather views on the questions to determine acceptability
• check if people understood and answered the new donor selection questions fully before giving blood to measure compliance
• investigate factors associated with compliance including motivations for donation

The results of the survey will be published as group data – meaning individual answers will not be shown, only information about the whole survey group or subgroups. No information that could identify individuals will ever be published. Data will be shared with the University of Nottingham for some of the analysis in a form that does not identify an individual or link them to their donor record. Responses are stored on secure computer systems and only seen by authorised staff.

Privacy

The survey has been reviewed and has undergone the following information governance approvals at UKHSA:

• deemed not research by the NHS Health Research Authority, designated a service evaluation
• Caldicott Advisory Panel Review to ensure safeguarding of personal confidential data – this survey does not require approval under Regulation 3 as it fulfils Caldicott principles
• Data Protection Impact Assessment reviewed by the Data Protection Officers of UKHSA, and the UK and Republic of Ireland blood services
• Data Anonymisation Risk Assessment
• Public Sector Equality Duty and Health Equity Relevance Assessment

Contact

Enquiries can be emailed to us at Donorsurvey@ukhsa.gov.uk

This email address is monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

Find out more information

For more information about FAIR, visit the NHS Blood and Transplant website.

For further details on how UKHSA processes your information and your individual rights, see the UKHSA privacy notice.

Information on previous donor surveys

Blood donor travel survey 2016

In 2016, Public Health England (PHE; since replaced by UKHSA) conducted a survey, in collaboration with NHS Blood and Transplant, to ask blood donors about their travel record and whether this had impacted on their donations in the past. Donors also gave feedback on the travel deferral information provided by NHS Blood and Transplant. The data donors provided was used to identify a low risk of Zika virus in donors returning from the Rio Olympics in 2016. Data about travel patterns is often used in this way, for instance to estimate the need for additional testing for West Nile virus as more areas became affected throughout Europe.

UK blood donor survey 2014 

In 2014, PHE conducted a survey, in collaboration with NHS Blood and Transplant, to find out whether donors understood the pre-donation form questions. It was also a chance to find out more about donors’ lifestyles and general health.

Donors were asked for their views on the pre-donation form questions and on an electronic version. They were also asked additional questions about their health and lifestyle. Over 65,000 donors took part in the survey and the methods were published as ‘Getting personal with blood donors – the rationale for, methodology of and an overview of participants in the UK blood donor survey’ (Davison K, Transfusion Medicine. Wiley Online Library, 2015).

The data that donors provided was then used to inform the next 2 reviews on donor selection questions and helped change donor selection policy. This was published as ‘Blood donation by men who have sex with men: using evidence to change policy’ (Davison K, Vox Sanguinis. Wiley Online Library, 2021).