Research on humans and human material in the UK is covered in law by the common-law concept of consent, and by legislation such as the DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998 and the HUMAN FERTILISATION & EMBRYOLOGY ACT 1990. Detailed ethical guidance on research has been published by many national and international organisations (see ETHICS COMMITTEES). Several basic principles feature in all statements about research ethics: these include the Declaration of Helsinki by the World Medical Association. These include the importance of ensuring that research is independently and rigorously scrutinised by appropriately constituted ethics committees; verifying that any risk to the research subject is reasonable in relation to the anticipated benefit; and ensuring that all efforts are made to minimise possible harm. The research subject's willingness to tolerate some risk does not relieve researchers of the responsibility of making sure that all risks are kept to a minimum. Above all, a key feature of ethical research has involved seeking informed consent from research participants. This rule, initially applied to actual involvement by human subjects in research, has gradually been extended to include seeking informed consent from patients or from their relatives to the use of data and to the use of human organs and tissue in research, including after POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION. There are circumstances in which the Minister of Health can set aside the common law duty of confidence for medical purposes. These are detailed in the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 with applications being thoroughly investigated by a team within the Health Research Authority, guided by an appointed Confidentiality Advisory Group with lay and medical members.