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P2-49

Local authority DI management and oversight review

Fuller Inquiry · Fuller Inquiry Phase 2 Report · Issued 15 July 2025 · Addressed to: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Government responseDepartment of Health and Social Care: Accepted in part (Dec 2025)

DeliveryDepartment of Health and Social Care says in progress (Jul 2026)

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation

There must be a review of the management and oversight arrangements for the mortuary service, taking into consideration who is appointed as the Designated Individual, their direct contact with the mortuary, level of influence within the local authority, and attendance at governance forums. In particular: Local authorities must ensure that the Designated Individual has enough time and resource to fulfil their statutory responsibilities, including time for learning and development. The Designated Individual must have access to director-level officers in the local authority. The Designated Individual must also be able to directly raise issues in relation to the mortuary at the highest level within the local authority if they deem it is necessary. Where the Designated Individual is non-technically trained, a senior anatomical pathology technologist must fulfil the Mortuary Manager role to ensure that there is sufficient technical experience within the mortuary. The Designated Individual must attend regular, documented meetings at mortuary level. The Designated Individual must also attend governance forums where the mortuary is discussed and scrutinised. In line with Human Tissue Authority guidance, the named Licence Holder must be at a more senior level than the Designated Individual (e.g. director level or higher) and have a clear understanding of the Human Tissue Authority's statutory requirements and the role of the Designated Individual.

Fuller Inquiry, Fuller Inquiry Phase 2 Report · 15 Jul 2025 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

In July 2026, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Innovation and Safety Preet Kaur Gill stated that government action includes "working with local authorities to support closer alignment with Human Tissue Authority standards on security, governance and audit" (Preet Kaur Gill, Jul 2026). Previously, in December 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care reported that the government had accepted the recommendation in principle, subject to further work to determine its full impact (Department of Health and Social Care response, Dec 2025).

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.

Government response

●Department of Health and Social Care · Accepted in part · 16 Dec 2025

Words of: Department of Health and Social Care, Interim update on government progress in responding to the Fuller inquiry phase 2 report, 16 December 2025

The government has agreed to accept in principle 43 recommendations subject to further work to determine the full impact of these recommendations.

Extract from: Interim update on government progress in responding to the Fuller inquiry phase 2 report

Site note: This is the Department of Health and Social Care's interim update on government progress in responding to the phase 2 report, published on 16 December 2025. It sorts the 75 recommendations into those the government has accepted in full (11), accepted in principle (43) and is still considering (21), and gives words of its own only on the 11 accepted in full. Every word is the Department's, so the rows are filed under it, including where the passage reports what another body has done.

Site note: The recommendation is addressed to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government; the passage is the Department's account, not that body's. The update gives this sentence once, under its heading "Recommendations accepted in principle", and lists this recommendation there among the 43 it covers. It says nothing about this recommendation alone.

Delivery

●Department of Health and Social Care says in progress · 15 Jul 2026

This includes working with local authorities to support closer alignment with Human Tissue Authority standards on security, governance and audit.

From: Government update on Progress in responding to the Fuller Inquiry Phase 2 report, Preet Kaur Gill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Innovation and Safety

Site note: Written ministerial statement HCWS261, made on 15 July 2026 by the Department of Health and Social Care. It gives no per-recommendation breakdown, and it says the Government "remains committed to providing a full response to Sir Jonathan Michael's report once the leadership period for Prime Minister has concluded". That full response had not been published when these rows were recorded.

Site note: The source does not name this recommendation by number. It is recorded here because it addresses local authority alignment with Human Tissue Authority standards, the subject of the recommendations to local authority mortuary and body store providers. The source gives this passage once, for several recommendations. The same words are recorded on recommendations 35 to 56.

How this page is built

The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.