Clause 49 - Power to de-accession human remains
Human Tissue Bill
2:30 pm
Ms Rosie Winterton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Doncaster Central, Labour)
I am interested in the hon. Gentleman's comments. We are not aware of any representations having been made about that issue arising from the clause by any of the organisations or museums that he mentioned. As he said, new schedule 1 seeks to insert references to clause 49 into the governing legislation of the museums concerned. It and the amendment are unnecessary, because subsection (5) makes it clear that the power given by the clause to each museum is a freestanding power, in
addition to the other powers in the legislation that governs them. The clause is technically correct and it is the appropriate means by which to grant power under the Bill to national museums to de-accession human remains.
I undertake to go back to the organisations that the hon. Gentleman has mentioned, and I will ask the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to check that we have not overlooked any problems. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that we feel that the clause satisfactorily covers the issues that he has raised, but we shall check in case anything has been missed out or the organisations have any concerns that they have not told us about, and if there are such concerns we shall come back. I hope that he will withdraw the amendment.