The Human Tissue Act 2004 (HT Act) regulates how human tissue is removed, stored and used. The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) is the regulator that sets the standards for safe and ethical use of human tissue samples, enforces compliance, and issues licences for relevant activities under the act.
At St George’s, University of London, we currently hold the following licences:
Research licence: the licence to store
HTA licensing number 12335
Under this licence we have the right to collect, archive and store human tissue samples (relevant material) for the purposes of carrying out research (scheduled purposes) which are carried out under ethical approval from the Research Ethics Service (RES).
The HTA research licence does not license the research process itself. Collection and storage of human tissues can be made under City St George’s School of Health & Medical Sciences HTA research licence, but research on those holdings cannot commence until ethical approval is obtained from RES.
Anatomy licence: the licence to educate
HTA licensing number 12330
Under this licence we have the right to store whole bodies and body parts for anatomical examination, education or training relating to human health, and research in connection with disorders, or the functioning of the human body. The School of Health & Medical Sciences' Pathology Museum licence is also held under the anatomy licence.