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[Received by email on 5 March 2018] Dear Panel,
Thank you for your enquiry seeking information about how someone's preference for organ donation is managed through the Jersey driving licence application process including:
- Where is this information recorded and stored?
- How is this information passed on?
- To whom is the information passed?
How and why the option to opt-in to organ donation came about
In November 2013 the Comité des Connétable s was approached by representatives of The Love Hearts Appeal (a Jersey charity that promotes organ donation) asking whether applications for driving licences could include an option to register as an organ donor (the UK driving licence application form included such an option).
The Comité was sympathetic to the request but the States had, on 24 September 2013, requested the Minister for Health and Social Services to review the current policy in respect of organ donation and to bring forward recommendations for improvement and therefore decided to ascertain what action the Minister was taking on this matter.
After consultation, including with the NHS Blood and Transplant Service (NHS BT) the Comité, with the support of the Minister for Transport and Technical Services, amended the driving licence application form so that an applicant might sign up to the register (and to choose which organs they would be prepared to donate). This option first appeared on driving licence application forms in 2015.
The process for collecting, storing and transferring information on organ donation
The Road Traffic (Jersey) Law 1956 requires the parochial authority (that is the Connétable of the parish in which the applicant for a licence or licence holder resides) to issue a driving licence if satisfied that a person is entitled such a licence. Each Parish is therefore responsible for processing the driving licence applications of its residents. Applicants can apply for a driving licence using a paper form or, for renewal of a full licence or replacement of a lost/stolen licence, using the online service.
To comply with this statutory requirement, the parishes maintain a single database which holds information about all driving licences issued to Jersey residents. The information on an application is stored securely by the Parish including in the database (hosted by SoJ). Parish staff may only access / amend the details of a person who is resident in the Parish when they have authority to do so.
NHS BT proposed a method for data transfer but the required testing, and budgetary constraints imposed on NHS BT, has delayed its introduction. In late 2017 NHS BT proposed that, as the main route for new organ donor registrations, the Jersey process should link to the NHS BT website rather than continue to process data. This has the benefit that issues such as GDPR, organ preference updates and other governance issues are controlled via a single NHS BT-led route.
Changes to the process in the future
In light of this proposed change, together with the Minister for Health and Social Services proposal of an opt-out system, it is likely that the opt-in option will be removed from Jersey driving licence applications in the future. The online driving licence application process could provide the applicant with a link to the NHS BT main register. Paper applications might include NHS BT leaflets encouraging applications to sign up to the register online.
Yours sincerely,
Len Norman
Chairman
Comité des Connétable s