PITY II - Human Tissue Bill

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Human Tissue Bill

portcullis The Human Tissue Bill has finally completed its passage through both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

We are delighted to advise you all that on Wednesday 10th November 2004 the Human Tissue Bill was passed for Royal Assent and should become Law within the next twelve months. This is a great achievement especially for all those families and individuals who have worked unstintingly to achieve this aim.

Members of the PITY II executive travelled to London to hear the final debate in the House of Commons. Also in attendance, to hear the debate, were a small number of other families and individuals from around the country. Two local North West MPs, Colin Pickthall and Joe Benton, met up with the committee members and they, too, were delighted that the Bill had been passed to become law. Both paid tribute to the work undertaken by PITY II and said, “that without the impetus from families this new law would not have been achieved.” In total there were 71 amendments introduced by the Government.

One of the main amendments made to the Bill, in relation to the taking of tissues from a deceased person, was concerning the penalties that are available to magistrates relating to offences committed under this bill.

The Minister of Sate for Health, Rosie Winterton, spoke at length on this subject and stated that …“ the penalties available to magistrates relating to offences under the bill were considered excessive, since the most serious cases would be referred to the Crown Court anyway, so that there was wide support for the view that fines should be a sufficient penalty for magistrates to impose in dealing with these offences.

We have removed magistrates’ power to order custodial sentences for all offences under the Bill because they can already order such sentences for most offences under the Human Organ Transplants Act 1989, which is concerned with trafficking in human organs and live transplants.

[...] I have made it clear in this House, as did my noble Friend in the other place (House of Lord’s) that the penalties are there to act as a deterrent to future offences relating to consent and misuse of human tissue.

We do not expect cases to come to court. The effect of the amendments will be, for example, that where a person stores or uses tissue taken from a deceased person for quality assurance without consent, if they are prosecuted and magistrates hear the case, the maximum penalty will be a fine. If the offence is so serious the magistrates refer it to the Crown Court, or if the defendant chooses to have a trial by jury, he or she can be sent to prison”.

Copies of these amendments can be obtained by contacting the PITY II office. The full report of the final debate can be viewed on the Parliamentary Website www.parliament.uk/hansard

The NHS Appointments Commission is currently involved in the process of recruiting a Chair and fourteen members for the new Human Tissue Authority (HTA). This Authority should be in place by March 2005 and will only remain until 2008, when it will merge with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) into a new Regulatory Authority (RAFT).

We sincerely hope that the HTA will have sufficient time to complete the work that they are assigned, especially the work that was left uncompleted by the Retained Organs Commission in relation to the collections of identifiable babies, organs and tissue still held in many places around the country.

There is still a vital need for a publicity campaign to allow families the opportunity to come forward before any decision can be taken over the respectful burial or cremation of these babies, organs and tissue.

As you are aware there is an unpaid working party that is in the process of putting together the codes of practice and new regulations by which the new authority will work. The Human Tissue Authority will continue this work once it has been established. We understand that there will be a consultation process for all interested parties to consider the codes of practice and regulations.

PITY II (Parents who have Interred Their Young Twice) is the parents' support group set up in the wake of the organ retention scandal
at Alder Hey Hospital (Liverpool, UK). It aims to provide self help support and advice to affected families.

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