Quality Accreditations
The Culture Collections of UK Health Security Agency is responsible for making biological resources available for use in a vast array of activities that contribute to improvements in human health. We are committed to the provision of quality products, advice, information, data and technical support for people who use the products and services that we provide to help them produce meaningful, accurate and valid scientific results.
You can view our quality policy here.
We have a quality management system in place that has been externally assessed to the international standard ISO 9001:2015. Compliance with this standard requires that we have authorised documented procedures for all our activities, robust training plans for our staff and processes for documenting feedback, comments and complaints.
The National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) and the European Collection of Authenticated Cell Cultures (ECACC) Quality Control testing methods are accredited in accordance with the recognised International Standard to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories.
The Human Tissue Act (HTA) regulates removal, storage and use of human tissue - defined as material that has come from a human body and consists of, or includes, human cells, and is regulated in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by the Human Tissue Authority. Under the requirements of the Human Tissue Act, it is unlawful to carry out these licensable activities without a licence.
The EU Tissue and Cells Directive (EUTCD) lays down standards of quality and safety for the donation, procurement, testing, processing, preservation, storage and distribution of human tissue and cells, to make it safer and easier to exchange tissue and cells between EU member states. The HTA are the Competent Authority in the UK for regulating establishments using human tissue for human application.
The European Collection of Authenticated Cell Cultures (ECACC) is licensed under section 16 of the Human Tissue Act 2004 for the storage of material (whole blood and peripheral blood lymphocytes) for specific research purposes.
Human Tissue Act Licence