Recommendation P1-15: Treat HTA compliance as Trust statutory responsibility
From Fuller Inquiry Phase 1 Report, published 28 November 2023.
Recommendation
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust should treat compliance with Human Tissue Authority standards as a statutory responsibility for the Trust, notwithstanding the fact that the formal responsibility under the Human Tissue Act 2004 rests with the Designated Individual. The Act will be subject to review in Phase 2 of the Inquiry's work.
In brief (written by this site)
In October 2024, Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, reported that Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust was providing greater board oversight of legally regulated mortuary activity, with NHS England monitoring ongoing compliance (Wes Streeting response, Oct 2024). The Trust had previously stated in February 2024 that it complied with the recommendation in full, noting that the Human Tissue Authority was satisfied all inspection shortfalls had been corrected (Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust response, Feb 2024). The record holds no update since the department's response of October 2024 (Wes Streeting response, Oct 2024).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
Today I am updating the House on the response to those recommendations. The Trust published an assurance statement in February 2024 on the implementation of the recommendations from the Phase 1 report. This sets out the progress made to implement the Inquiry’s recommendations.
The range of actions taken by the Trust include requiring that non-mortuary staff and contractors are always accompanied by another staff member when visiting the mortuaries; controlling access to mortuaries using swipe cards; mandating contractors to renew security clearances every three years; and installing CCTV coverage monitoring access to and from mortuary areas. The Trust Board is also providing greater oversight and assurance of legally regulated activity in the mortuary.
I am also reassured that NHS England’s South East regional team held monthly oversight meetings with the Trust between November 2023 and April 2024 (in partnership with Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board) to ensure progress against the Inquiry’s recommendations and to review evidence of the Trust’s progress in delivering their action plan. Ongoing compliance with the Inquiry's recommendations will be monitored by NHS England through regular regional oversight meetings with the Trust, and through other channels as appropriate.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: Written statement HCWS132, made on 15 October 2024 by Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. It reports what the Trust and the two county councils had done, and neither accepts nor rejects any recommendation, so the rows are marked noted. The Phase 1 recommendations are addressed to Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (16) and to Kent County Council and East Sussex County Council (recommendation 12).
Site note: The statement gives these paragraphs once, for the 16 recommendations addressed to the Trust, and the same words are recorded on each of them.
The Trust now complies with this recommendation in full on the following basis:
• The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) inspected the Trust’s mortuaries in June 2022 and confirmed that it was satisfied that the Trust had completed the agreed actions in the corrective and preventative action (CAPA) plan and in doing so had taken sufficient action to correct all shortfalls addressed in the Inspection Report.
• The Designated Individual and the Persons Designate maintain all standards and report through the governance structure outlined in this paper, to ensure they continue to meet these standards (see recommendations 2, 4, 11, 14 & 16).
• All recommendations from HTA inspections are implemented in full (see recommendations 2 and 14).
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust's "Assurance statement on the implementation of the recommendations from the Phase 1 report", agenda item 02-5 of its Trust Board meeting of 29 February 2024 (pages 15 to 26 of the meeting book, read from the Internet Archive). The statement is dated 23 February 2024 at its foot, and the rows carry that date. The words are the Trust's.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has been found in the sources searched (last checked 5 February 2026). This is separate from the response above.
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department of Health and Social Care
Response - Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Response