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Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, we are indebted to the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, for introducing a very important subject. As I understand it, both she and the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, understand and support the central importance of consent in the removal, storage and use of post-mortem tissue samples. They highlight the fact that, since the Human Tissue Act 2004, a number of situations have developed that are probably beyond the circumstances that this House and the other place had in mind when we debated that legislation and it was taken through Parliament. We are indebted to the noble Baroness for giving examples of those situations, which were not envisaged. I was particularly struck by the circumstances she outlined in which pathologists are prevented from undertaking potentially life-saving research for the benefit of relatives of the deceased; in which vital forensic research is possible only with the consent of the accused; in which evidence that may become crucial to a successful criminal investigation cannot lawfully be retained; and in which public health research, such as the example given of the project into the epidemiology of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, has proved to be logistically impossible. I am greatly benefited by a letter, which the noble Baroness shared with me, from Professor Peter Furness, President of the Royal College of Pathologists. We must now look to the Minister to outline how the Government intend to respond to these situations, and how we can create the necessary flexibility to solve the most important of these problems while maintaining an appropriate level of scrutiny that would satisfy this House—and of course the public—that the underlying intent of the Human Tissue Act 2004 is not being undermined or eroded. We therefore await the Minister’s response with great interest.