The HTA licenses more than 800 organisations across six sectors. You can search for organisations licensed by the HTA below. Licensed organisations must meet the standards set by the HTA. In order to ensure this happens, every organisation must nominate a person who will supervise the activities for which they are licensed, known as a Designated Individual (DI).
Detailed FAQs on how and why we regulate mortuaries where post mortem examinations take place.
To find a medical school to donate you body use the tool below.
Donating your body to a medical school is a valuable gift. Your donation will become an important resource for training healthcare professionals or for research.
The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) licenses organisations that collect or receive bodies or other human materials.
Under the Human Tissue Act 2004, written and witnessed consent must be given prior to death. Consent cannot be given by anyone else after your death.
When someone dies it can be a distressing and confusing time for family members. In some circumstances, a post-mortem examination may be required or requested. This is an examination of a body after death and during this examination organs and tissue samples may need to be removed for investigation. After the post mortem-examination decisions will need to be made about what should happen to the removed organs and tissue samples.
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.
The HTA’s regulation helps ensure that tissue is stored to high standards, to be of most use to healthcare training and research. We know that more people are willing to donate in the knowledge there is an effective regulator that monitors and inspects organisations against certain standards.