Scottish Donation and Transplant Group written update: August 2025

Human Tissue Authority (HTA) update 

Update given by: 

• Jessica Porter, Head of Regulation, Human Tissue Authority  

Supply of information about transplant regulations 

On 1 July 2025, the Human Tissue (Supply of Information about Transplants) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 came into force.  

Relevant clinicians in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland who work closely with patients that need, or have received, an organ transplant are required to report if they have a reasonable suspicion that an organ donation and transplantation-related offence may have been committed under Human Tissue or Modern Slavery legislation. See Annex one for more information and paragraph 11 for examples of ‘reasonable suspicion’ and if they are made aware that a patient has received an organ transplant outside the UK (see paragraphs 15-18, for more information). Information on the legal and regulatory background is provided in Annex one of our Guidance on reporting under the Regulations. 

Clinicians must report a case to the HTA by emailing report@hta.gov.uk. See paragraphs 20-23 of the guidance on reporting for more information. 

Colleagues are also reminded of the amendment made to Section 32 of the Human Tissue Act 2004 and Section 20 of the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006 on 1 July 2022. This extended the offences set out in these sections so that they have extraterritorial jurisdiction. These offences relate to financial or commercial dealings in human material for transplant, such as buying or selling human organs. In practice, this means that any person who is resident in England, Wales or Scotland is committing an offence if they are involved in seeking, offering, or receiving payment or reward for donating organs for transplantation or initiating, negotiating, advertising or being involved in buying or selling human organs for transplantation, anywhere in the world.

Please contact report@hta.gov.uk for guidance if you have any questions about reporting.  

Living donation 

For the period 1 April 2025 to 31 July 2025, we assessed 30 living organ donation cases where the transplant was due to take place in Scotland. 

Three of these cases were for donors and recipients taking part in the National Living Kidney Sharing Scheme.