The HTA regulates organisations that remove, store and use human tissue for research, patient treatment, post-mortem examination, anatomical examination, surgical training and display in public. These activities require appropriate consent to be in place in order for them to lawfully take place, and a number of them are also licensable. Our code of practice on consent gives guidance on how to comply with the consent requirements of the Human Tissue Act 2004. 

The definition of relevant material in the Act is:

Section 53: Relevant material:

Information on how to dispose of pregnancy remains following a pregnancy loss or termination.

Many people, with the agreement of their relatives, want to support research into dementia and other brain diseases by donating their brain to a brain bank for research.

Brain banks encourage potential donors to provide written consent while they are alive so that brain donation can proceed smoothly after they have died. Donated brains can only be retrieved on premises licensed by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) for removal and storage of tissues for use for research (see 1 below). Most of these premises are mortuaries in NHS hospitals.

The HTA has updated its protocol to ensure the provision of forensic pathology services in the event of regulatory action taken in England and Wales.

The protocol is entered into between the HTA, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Pathology Delivery Board, responsible to the Home Office for maintaining the forensic pathology service for the criminal justice system in England and Wales.