Schedule 2 - The Human Tissue Authority
Human Tissue Bill
9:10 am
Mr Andrew Lansley (South Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 6, in
schedule 2, page 38, line 13, at end insert—
(3) Subject to the requirements of sub-paragraph (2) above, the Secretary of State shall exercise his power to appoint members of the Authority to secure that the Authority will also consist of members who have relevant expertise in the activities to be regulated by the Authority.'.
Having completed part 1, we move to the establishment and composition of the Human Tissue Authority. The amendment is designed to secure that, in exercising the power of appointment that is given to the Secretary of State under sub-paragraph (1)(b), he will do so in a way that ensures that the authority consists of members who have relevant expertise in the activities to be regulated by the authority. I should have said ''will also consist'', lest it be thought that we are intending that the authority should consist only of members who have relevant expertise.
I am sure that the Committee will recognise that worry has been expressed that schedule 2 has a skeleton structure. It tells us about the constitution of the authority, but little about the way in which it will conduct itself. It has pretty much of a pro forma, constitutional style. Its membership is a key aspect of the matter. In theory—I am sure not that it is so in practice—the Secretary of State can under paragraph 1 appoint to the Human Tissue Authority people who have no relevant expertise in such activity.
Members of the Committee can in various ways attest to the value of some expertise, although not all of us have expertise in the activities of the authority. It would be useful if some authority members had such expertise. The authority should comprise a mix of laypersons, those with clinical or scientific expertise and members of the public who have had unhappy or distressing experiences. It is certainly my experience of the support network in Cambridge that such people have contributed substantially and responsibly to the consultation processes that are now leading to the establishment of the Human Tissue Authority. When we consider relevant expertise, we must bear in mind that not only expertise but experience is relevant.
The purpose of the amendment is to explore the Government's intentions for the establishment of the authority. Without stretching your consent too far,
Mrs. Adams, I hope that we can explore the timetable for the establishment of the authority and what processes the Government have in mind for setting up a shadow authority, so that when the HTA begins its work, it might be able to do so with, for example, a code of practice in place. Representations that have been made to me have concerned not only the expertise available to the authority and its ability to do its job, but the fact that members of the relevant medical and scientific communities should have access to the codes of practice in as near as final a form as possible, and as soon as possible.I hope that the amendment commends itself to the Committee and that it is the Government's intention that members of the authority should include those with relevant expertise. Such expertise might, for example, include those from the medical community who are aware of the processes of taking consent and working with families and patients, people from the Royal College of Pathologists or those who have expertise in the scientific and research applications of retained organs and tissues. We shall discuss the boards of the inspectorate later, especially in relation to the Royal College of Pathologists and its special role.
I do not want the implications for the biotechnology industry to be left out of account—we will discuss that later. The Human Tissue Authority will be very concerned with the issues of licensing and of trafficking and commercial dealings. For that reason, too, there is an argument for those with relevant expertise to be included.
Lest there be any misunderstanding, I should say that the subsequent requirements relating to the absence of conflicts of interest would obviously apply to those with relevant expertise; they would not be persons who had interests that were prejudicial to their membership of the authority. That may make it more difficult to appoint people with current clinical or research interests. However, I am sure that we can devise arrangements that avoid any decisions being made that would bear on an individual's current research interests. That happens in many circumstances: for example, research ethics committees and research councils often include people who have research projects that could be directly relevant to their membership, but arrangements can be made to exclude them from any decisions where a conflict of interests might arise.
I hope that the amendment commends itself as one that the Government might adopt. In any case, it is important to understand at this stage their intentions for the composition of the authority. I hope that they will agree that the Secretary of State will take into account some of the considerations that I have mentioned. It might also be helpful at the outset of our discussion of schedule 2 for the Committee to be told what timetable the Government have in mind and what process there is for establishing the Human Tissue Authority in its shadow form before it takes up its role.