Public information on post-mortem examination and retention of organs and tissue

In line with our recent strategic shift towards empowering the public in making decisions, the HTA has produced a document on what public expectations should be for the retention of post mortem tissue.

Issue date: 13 December 2011

The public-focused information clarifies the Human Tissue Act’s requirements for professionals and manages public expectations about what happens to tissue after death. It also helps address issues we have identified on inspection and provides advice and guidance to establishments, which they can adapt for local use. Importantly we hope it will also support communications between families, Pathologists, Coroners and the police in ensuring tissue is not retained without consent.

It has been produced in collaboration with members of the public and public-facing organisations including the Bereavement Services Association, Patient Concern, Patients Association and INQUEST, as well as our Department of Health policy branch, past and present Authority Members, and the HTA Histopathology Working Group.

We encourage stakeholders, establishments and patient groups to publish the information on their own websites, use it during discussions, and/or updating existing resources, if appropriate. We encourage establishments to remove all copies of the now obsolete A guide to the post mortem examination procedure, produced by the Department of Health.

If you plan to issue the text though your own communications channels, please let us know so we can evaluate interest and provide further advice if needed. Because it may be updated from time to time, you may wish to link to the text that is published on our website.

This information is also available as a set of FAQs online, which covers both Coroners and hospital post mortems, and updates existing literature about the post mortem process and legal framework.

Thanks to those many groups and individuals who contributed to the text. We plan to list groups who contributed to the text. If you additionally wish to give your personal or organisational endorsement please let us know. If you have any feedback please contact enquiries@hta.gov.uk.