This idea has been created by the Scrutinise team as a historical case study. It represents real legislation that reached the statute book through civil society advocacy. It is presented here to show how that process might have looked on Scrutinise.
Organ Donation (Wales) Act 2013
Introduced deemed consent (soft opt-out) for organ donation in Wales, making Wales the first UK nation to do so. Kidney Wales Foundation campaigned for a decade. The Act came into force in 2015 and Wales subsequently had significantly higher consent rates.
Summary
Introduced deemed consent (soft opt-out) for organ donation in Wales, making Wales the first UK nation to do so. Kidney Wales Foundation campaigned for a decade. The Act came into force in 2015 and Wales subsequently had significantly higher consent rates.
Challenge (summary)
Wales had one of the lowest organ donor registration rates in the UK. Thousands of people died awaiting transplants that could have been performed if consent rates were higher. The opt-in system required active registration that many people intended to do but never completed.
Approach (summary)
A soft opt-out system where adults who have not opted out are deemed to have consented to organ donation, while maintaining the ability for individuals to opt out and for families to be consulted.
First step (summary)
Introduce the Human Transplantation (Wales) Bill through the Senedd creating deemed consent; run a public information campaign; maintain an opt-out register; publish annual data on consent rates to assess impact.