Evaluations

This page provides information about evaluation projects carried out by the HTA.

Impact of legislation and HTA regulation on research, September 2009

At the end of 2008, the HTA commissioned Opinion Leader to conduct an evaluation of perceptions on how human tissue legislation and its required regulation by the HTA has affected researchers working with human tissue.

Before undertaking the project, we had heard anecdotal positive and negative feedback from people in the research sector about how human tissue legislation and HTA regulation was affecting their work. Concerns about the potential impact of the legislation were also raised during the passage of the Human Tissue Bill. We hoped that the project would clarify this issue by providing us with robust evidence about the impact of the legislation and HTA regulation on research.

You can read the results from the evaluation and our plans for taking the findings forward by downloading the report from the project (available on the left side of this page).

The results show that there is a high awareness of the broad roles of the HTA, and most participants reported that the HTA performs well. However, participants found it difficult to distinguish between human tissue legislation and HTA regulation, and between the range of research activities beyond the HTA’s remit. The results demonstrate the importance of organisations governing the research sector working closely together to streamline activities and reduce the burden on the sector. The HTA will continue to work within its statutory remit to help achieve this goal.

To establish the next steps for this project, we held a meeting with representatives from the research community, who had contributed to the development of the evaluation. The meeting, which took place on 27 October, was attended by organisations including the Department of Health, Royal College of Pathologists, Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK, OnCore and the National Research Ethics Service. The minutes and presentations from this meeting can be downloaded from the left side of this page.

We received valuable input from all who attended on the findings of the report and how we can work together to support the research community. We are currently reviewing how we can contribute to the next steps.  

A report by onCore UK published in July 2009, was founded through a collaborative funding partnership with the Department of Health, the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK. Its recommendations were that organisations governing the research sector should work closely together to streamline activities and reduce the burden on the sector. The results are consistent with the HTA’s report on the impact of legislation and regulation on research.

Stakeholder evaluation project, June 2007

At our annual report-back event in 2007 we launched the results of our stakeholder evaluation project with Ipsos MORI. This project evaluated public and professional opinions about the work of the HTA. 

The results showed that the public is very aware of what human tissue is and its uses. Skin, body parts, organs, blood and transplants were the words most often spontaneously triggered by the term. The public’s view of the potential uses of tissue fall into two categories – medical procedures and medical research. The results also showed that the public wants more information about regulation and the processes involved, and that this is key to building public trust. In terms of professionals, the results showed that, overall, stakeholders are very positive about the HTA. They believe we have had a significant impact and are fulfilling our role successfully.

You can download the Ipsos MORI report of the evaluation of the general public on the left side of this page.