More organ donors are registering meaning hundreds more transplants are saving lives, but more donors are still needed, the government has said.

In a report launched by the health secretary Andy Burnham today, he says since the Organ Donation Taskforce Implementation Programme was introduced there has been an increase of almost one million more people on the organ donor register.

The idea behind the programme was to increase donation by more than 50 per cent by 2013, with the aim of enabling the NHS to carry out more than 1,400 extra transplants every year.

Mr Burnham said: "I am delighted to see that many more people are now donating organs both while they are still alive and after they have died which has helped to save hundreds of lives. We have made an excellent start, but there is still a long way to go.

"We are aiming to get 20 million people on Organ Donor Register in 2010, working towards 25 million by 2013."

Today’s report shows there are now more than one in four of the population on the organ donor register, with an 11 per cent rise in people donating after death.

National clinical director for transplantation, Chris Rudge, said: "I would like to thank everyone working with us to implement the Taskforce recommendations in particular the hundreds of Donor Transplant Co-ordinators, Clinical Leads for Organ Donation and Non-Clinical Champions, who are putting the Taskforce’s vision in to practice.

"Their work will help to ensure that in future, organ donation becomes a usual part of NHS practice."

Chairman of the British Medical Association’s (BMA) medical ethics committee, Dr Tony Calland, said: "The BMA is delighted to hear that so much has been achieved in the last year and that the changes being put in place are beginning to deliver more donated organs and more transplants.

"There is still much to do, however, and we cannot be complacent. We very much hope the 50 per cent increase in donation rates, predicted by the Organ Donation Taskforce, will be achieved in the next five years. But there will still be a shortage of donors and people will still be dying waiting for an organ.

"Now is the time to have a serious debate about changing to a system of presumed consent (opt-out) for organ donation. In our view having a well organised and funded infrastructure, combined with a system of presumed consent, is still the best way forward."

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