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• Reporting a Serious Adverse Event or Reaction(SAEARs)
• Reporting a HTA Reportable Incident (HTARI)

It is mandatory for relevant clinicians in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to report:

• a reasonable suspicion that an organ donation and transplantation related offence may have been committed under the Human Tissue Act or Modern Slavery legislation, and

• a patient who has received an organ transplant outside the UK.

Further information on how to report is on our professional guidance for travelling for organ transplantation page.

The HTA does not offer specific training. We do, however, provide information and advice on our website, including:

• HTA’s Codes of Practice and standards
• Guidance for professionals
• Useful information for DIs and named contacted
• Our governing legislation
• Information on Research tissue banks and e-learning

We have also developed a series of quizzes on the fundamental requirements of the Human Tissue Act 2004 (HT Act) and the Human Tissue (Quality and Safety for Human Application) Regulations 2007 (Q&S Regulations).

The purpose of these tests is to provide you with a useful resource to test your knowledge on our governing legislation: HTA legislation

The Medical Research Council’s Regulatory Support Centre has e-learning modules on the HT Act. The Health Research Authority’s e-learning package on research involving human tissue is available on their website. Both were developed with input from the HTA.

Find out about applying for a licence in the licensing section of this website.

It is a legal requirement to inform the HTA of any changes to your licence or contact details. This ensures we can reach the Designated Individual (DI) and Licence Holder (LH) or Corporate Licence Holder contact (CLHc). 

Please check the guidance on the how to make changes to your licence page. 

To update details the DI will need to be approve and channges and confirm the following information for the new PD(s) –

• Title
• Full name
• Job title
• Department
• Contact address
• Telephone number
• Email address

In the event you want to advise of any PDs to remove from the record, please provide their name(s). 

Find practical guidance for professionals carrying our activity under the HTA's remit in our codes of practice section of this website. 

If you have a concern about the way that the HTA or a member of our staff has exercised or failed to exercise our functions, you can complain to the HTA by contacting us via the contact the HTA form.

You will need to supply us with a name and a contact email or phone number. We will get in touch if we need more information, including additional documents, images or supporting evidence. 

Once we receive a complaint, our Complaints Officer will arrange for an investigation to take place.

The time taken to conduct an investigation may vary depending on the urgency and complexity of the complaint. However, we will acknowledge receipt of all complaints within three 3 working days and respond to complaints within 20 working days. If we cannot respond within this timeframe, we will inform you and tell you when a response will be due.

If you are dissatisfied with our final response, you can requests a review, which will be completed within 20 working days

Further information about how we handle complaints about the HTA can be found in the HTA’s complaints policy and Standard Operating Procedure. 

If you have a concern about an establishment we license, please contact us via the contact the HTA form supplying us with a name and a contact email or phone number.

We will also need the establishment’s name and an overview of concern.  We will get in touch if we need more information, including additional documents, images or supporting evidence. 

You don't have to tell us who you are when you report a concern but if you don't it may make it more difficult for us to take forward the investigation.

If an investigation does take place, the HTA may be required to disclose your name, even if you asked for it to be withheld, however we will do our best avoid that.

When a concern is raised by an employee of an organisation (or ‘whistleblower’) about practices taking place, we will give them appropriate support and advice and their interests will be protected as far as possible.

Our investigation

The HTA will establish whether there has been a breach of our standards and take action where necessary. We will first assess any concerns we receive about organisations to determine whether the matter is within the HTA’s remit

It may be that a concern raised with us does not fall within our remit. If this is the case, we will inform the person who raised the concern, and offer advice about other organisations that may be able to take the matter forward, for example:

1. Health watchdogs and authorities: these organisations oversee health and social care in England.
2. Health professional regulators: these organisations set the standards of behaviour, education and ethics that health professionals must meet.
3. Advertising Standards Authority: regulates advertising across all media.
4. Citizens Advice Bureau: offers advice about consumer rights, including how to contact Trading Standards.

If the matter is within our remit, we will assess the risk that it poses and investigate.

The time taken to conduct an investigation may vary depending on the urgency and complexity of the concern raised. However, we will acknowledge receipt within three working days and aim to respond to your concern within 20 working days. Where this is not possible, we will let you know when a response will be due.

How we handle allegations

You can down load our allegation policy document for more information.

The HTA does not deal with actual body donation but licenses, inspects and regulates establishments that do.

Each medical school has its own rules about accepting donations. You can find their contact details in the medical schools section of our website. 

The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) regulates organisations that handle human tissue - we cannot help with individual donation requests.

The HTA does not deal with actual body donation but licenses, inspects and regulates establishments that do.

Our role is to make sure that these organisations remove, store, and use brains, bodies and tissues in an appropriate, respectful and well-managed way, and that the wishes of individual patients and their families are respected. 

Read our medical schools and body donation FAQs

The HTA does not deal with actual body donation but licenses, inspects and regulates establishments that do.

Find out more about donating a tissue or organ in the deceased organ and tissue donation for transplants section of our website.

Your registration for body donation would have been with your local medical school, details of which should be on the consent form you completed.

The HTA does not deal with actual body donation but licenses, inspects and regulates establishments that do.

Your registration for body donation would have been with your local medical school, details of which should be on the consent form you completed. 

The HTA licences the establishments that collect bone marrow, however we are not directly involved in the clinical process. To register as a bone marrow donor please visit the Antony Nolan register or the NHS Blood and Transplant British Bone Marrow website.

The HTA also regulates Bone marrow and PBSC donation where the donor is either a child or adult lacking capacity to consent. 

For further information this process, please see the HTA Guide for the general public on Donation of bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation

The HTA is responsible for licensing establishments that carry out umbilical cord blood and placenta collection, however, we do not have a role in facilitating the collection of those wishing to bank cord blood and placenta tissue. Further information can be found on cord blood banking on our website.

At present, only women giving birth in specific hospitals where a public cord bank is operating can donate cord blood to a public bank. There are two public cord blood banks in the UK: the Anthony Nolan Cord Blood Bank and the NHS Cord Blood Bank. Each bank operates independently, but both use the same quality and safety standards set by the HTA and NetCord-FACT.

If you wish to opt for private cord blood banking, the inspection reports of the establishments that we licence are available on our website. However, you will need to enquire with the individual establishments regarding the prices. Generally, private cord banks hold contracts with mobile collection services, and so can collect from most UK hospitals. 

Our guidance document includes useful information such as understanding your privately banked cord blood unit’s potential, questions which we would urge people privately banking to ask their chosen bank, key information about the banking process and frequently asked questions.

We would also advise you to discuss this procedure with the hospital where you are due to give birth.

Please find details below for a variety of donation options which you may wish to consider.

Information about donation options can be found by downloading the body, brain and tissue donation information pack which provides information on body, brain or tissue donation for anatomical examination, research or education and training.

A research tissue bank is a collection of tissue that may be used in different research projects. Tissue is often collected and stored according to a specific purpose or area of research. For example, a research tissue bank may contain tissue collected from people with a particular disease such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease or from a part of the body such as the liver or lungs.

If you would like to donate tissue to a research tissue bank, you should contact the research tissue bank directly. They will be able to advise whether it is possible to donate tissue and give more information about what donation entails. Most research tissue banks or disease research charities that need donations have websites with contact information for potential donors. These can be found by searching online for tissue banks. To narrow down your options you could include a location or a specific research area such as Barts Cancer Institute Tissue Banks or NHSBT.

Our website provides information on donating your tissue for research and the HTA's FAQs about donating tissue for research may provide further details.

You may wish to contact the UK Clinical Research Collaboration for information on research tissue banks that may accept tissue for research and also the Tissue Register.