Health research regulation ‘has become more complex and more bewildering’

The Health Research Authority has made regulation “more complex and more bewildering”, Liberal Democrat peer Phil Willis has said.

“The HRA appears to have become a very expensive national ethics service,” said Willis, who also sits on the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, in a debate in the House of Lords on 16 January. “As one expert witness revealed yesterday to our committee, ‘it is only accessible if you know where to look’.” Willis is also chairman of the Association of Medical Research Charities.