HM Inspector of Anatomy for Scotland Annual Report to the Scottish Ministers 1 April 2025 – 31 March 2026

Glasgow

University of Glasgow

Head of Anatomy: Professor Scott Border.

There are currently 4 personal licence holders 2 academic, 2 technical.

Licensed Areas:

No change since previous inspection.

Premises Licence expiry date: 12^th October 2033

The premises licence plus a map of the licensed area were available for inspection.

Access To Licensed Areas:

All licensed areas are protected by intruder alarms.

Six technical staff plus one laboratory assistant and two academic staff have swipe card access to all licensed areas. Swipe card access is controlled by the Chief Technician.

On the map of licensed areas, those areas regarded as 'high risk' can only be accessed by licensed teachers plus appropriate technical staff, the prosection store by all teaching staff and appropriate technical staff and the teaching labs by all teaching staff.

Students have free access to the corridor leading to the teaching labs plus to the museum. Development of a means of restricting public access to the museum is ongoing with the suggestion of installing a card access gate at the corridor entrance to the museum being the best option. Funding has been approved and, subject to Listed Building considerations, it is hoped to have the system in place in July/August 2026.

Security:

An intruder alarm system with infrared sensors (PIR’s) protects all licensed areas.

Third party access has now been removed from licensed areas. A SALTO card access system has been added to the anatomy administration offices, histology lab’ and the museum gallery. Card access has also been installed at the lecture theatre to prevent non-anatomy staff access to the dissecting room corridor

Out of Hour access: Security has access to all areas but would only enter these areas in the event of an emergency, and then, only after advising the Chief Technician.

Record Keeping/Signed Agreements:

Full records and electronic copies of documentation are stored on a bespoke password protected web-based bequest database. Electronic copies of correspondence and initial information are stored on Microsoft Teams. Original hard copies of declaration of bequest forms on the donor register are stored in fireproof cabinets. An archive of hard copies of donor records are also stored in fireproof cabinets. Active files are temporarily held in the Anatomy Office.

There is in place a printed and bound standard operating procedure for the handling of cadavers from the receipt of a body into the department until its final disposal by cremation.

Check of Records

A check of the records against the number of cadavers in storage plus their location found everything to be in order.

A random selection of retained parts and their location according to the Record of Retained Parts was checked and found to be correct. A reverse check of retained parts and their location was then made against their recorded location in the Record of Retained Parts which was again found to correct.

Code of Conduct:

A copy of ‘Rules and Regulations’ is given out in advance to all those attending courses using cadaver material. This must be signed and returned before access to the teaching lab is granted. These forms are then scanned and saved on a database. These were made available for the inspection.

Bequest Information:

Bequest forms requested

335 (308)*

Bequest forms returned

250 (233)*

Bequests accepted

104 (104)*

Bequests unable to be accepted

41 (48)*

Bequests redirected

Dundee - 1

Redirected bequests accepted

Edinburgh - 14

*2024 – 2025 figures

Bodies Currently Held in Department:

Embalmed

91

Fresh/frozen

95

Unused/Other

0

Total

186

Number of oldest body in storage and date by which it must be disposed

22/23-70, 31 May 2026

Courses Run Using Cadaver Material:

There are currently 18 internal and 31 external courses using anatomy facilities, the latter running collaboratively between the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and the University of Glasgow. A comprehensive list of all these courses was available for inspection – see appendix.

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow

Director of Clinical Skills: Mr Ian Colquhoun

There are 2 licensed teachers, 1 academic and 1 technical member of staff.

Licensed Areas:

At the time of the inspection, there was no change to the licensed area from that of the previous inspection.

Premises Licence expiry date – 4 February 2028

During the reporting year, an application for a temporary premises licence was requested and subsequently approved for two floors to be licensed in College premises at 19 Blythswood Square, Glasgow

During the inspection, this area was inspected with the view to it becoming permanently licensed. Since then, a premises license application plus a plan of the new proposed licensed area has been received and an updated premises license duly granted.

RCPSG Blythswood Square Premises Licence expiry date – 10 April 2036

Security:

A Paxton net 2 security system is in place at the Macewen Facility at the College and also at 19 Blythswood Square which requires keycard passes. Any access to any of these spaces is automatically forwarded by both email and mobile phone to Director of Clinical Skills.

The Macewen labs can be accessed by all College Education and Assessment staff as well as the facilities team (College Officers).

Access to the cadaveric lab is restricted to the Director of Clinical Skills, two technical staff, the College Facility Manager and the College Officers (in the event of fire).

If any alarm is triggered when there is cadaveric material in the College then the SOP is to contact the nominated licensed holder to let them know what the issue is.

Record Keeping/ Signed Agreements:

All requests for cadaveric material from the Anatomy Department, University of Glasgow are emailed to a licensed teacher who then logs the specimens out of the department and logs them back in on their return.

Code of Conduct: A Code of Conduct and information sheet is given to all those attending courses in the College which is signed and returned to the licensed teacher.

No bodies currently on site.

Course Run at the College:

See the appendix.

University of Strathclyde

Associate Head of Department: Dr Philip Riches

There 4 licensed teachers, 3 academic, 1 technical

Licensed Areas:

No change since licence issued on 26 September 2024, expiry date, 26 September 2034.

A map of the licensed areas was available for inspection.

No cadaver material was on the premises at the time of the inspection.

Security:

Restricted swipe card access to all licensed space and all access corridors monitored by CCTV.

St Andrews

Head of Anatomy: Dr Enis Cezayirli

There are 8 licensed teachers, 3 academic and 5 technical.

Licensed Areas:

No change since previous inspection.

Premises Licence expiry date: 28 February 2031

A map of the licensed areas and of the premises licence were available for inspection

Record Keeping/Signed Agreements:

A user friendly, computer-based record keeping system is in place which is first class in its operation. Access to the system is by licensed teachers, the bequest coordinator and IT staff who maintain the system.

Check of Records

A check of the records against the number of cadavers in storage plus their location found everything to be in order.

A random selection of retained parts and their location according to the Record of Retained Parts was checked and found to be correct. A reverse check of retained parts and their location was then made against their recorded location in the Record of Retained Parts which was again found to correct.

Code of Practice: A copy of the Code of Practice is given to all attending courses in the licensed space which must be signed and returned before access is granted.

Bequest Information:

Bequest forms requested

111 (76)*

Bequest forms returned

65 (40)*

Bequests accepted

33 (32)*

Bequests unable to be accepted

16 (15)*

Bequests redirected

0

Redirected requests accepted

Aberdeen – 1, Dundee – 3, Edinburgh – 3.

*2024 – 2025 figures

Bodies Currently Held in Department:

Embalmed

58

Fresh/frozen

0

Number of oldest body in storage and date by which it must be disposed

1072 – 19 December 2026

Internal/External Courses Using Anatomy Facilities:

These are used for 3 University organised courses and 5 externally run courses.