UK Biobank operates to the highest ethical standards. We have research ethics approval to run UK Biobank, and are guided by an Ethics Advisory Committee and ethical input to our Access Committee, which makes decisions about access to our data and biological samples.
Read our original Ethics and Governance Framework to find out more about the basis of UK Biobank’s ethics and governance.
We implement the Ethics and Governance Framework in the following ways:
Ethics Advisory Committee
Our Ethics Advisory Committee was established in 2018, replacing the Ethics and Governance Council which was established by our funders the Medical Research Council and Wellcome when we began recruiting participants in 2006.
The committee provides advice to the UK Biobank Board on ethical issues that arise through our work. Find out more about the Ethics Advisory Committee.
Ethical input to the Access Committee
Professor Michael Parker, Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Ethox Centre at the University of Oxford, provides the Access Committee with ethical advice on general issues and specific applications to access data.
The Access Committee will also ask for advice from the Ethics Advisory Committee and the Participant Advisory Group on particular issues.
Research ethics approval
We have approval from the North West Multi-centre Research Ethics Committee as a research tissue bank.
This means that researchers can operate under this approval with no need for further ethical approval, other than exceptions such as re-contact applications.
This RTB approval was granted initially in 2011 and it is renewal on a five-yearly cycle: we successfully applied to renew it in 2016 and 2021. UK Biobank will apply for renewal effective in 2026.
Ethics approval letters
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UK Biobank meets certain regulatory requirements. Find out more about them.