Criminal Liability for Candour Breach
Criminal liability should attach to breach of this duty and criminal liability should attach to obstruction of another in the performance of this duty.
- No legislation attaching criminal liability to breach of the duty of candour, or to obstruction of another in performing the duty, has been introduced in Northern Ireland.
- No further published evidence of progress towards criminal sanctions has been identified since 2018.
How was this evidence gathered?
Response
Accepted in Part
Response
Accepted in PartUnder review as part of wider duty of candour and accountability framework development.
Published Evidence
Published assessments of progress from inspectorates, select committees, official progress reports, and other sources. Source type badge indicates whether each assessment is independent or government self-reported.
Criminal liability for breach of duty of candour has not been introduced. No legislation exists to attach criminal sanctions to candour failures in NI.
View detailed findings
Recommendation 2 called for criminal liability to attach to breach of the duty of candour and to obstruction of others performing this duty. Since no statutory duty of candour has been enacted in NI (see IHRD-1), criminal liability provisions cannot exist. Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has expressed concerns about individual criminal sanctions that would only apply in NI. After 8 years, this recommendation is effectively not accepted.