IHRD-3 Response Accepted

Guidance on Statutory Duty of Candour

Recommendation

Unequivocal guidance should be issued by the Department to all Trusts and their legal advisors detailing what is expected of Trusts in order to meet the statutory duty.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
Government response: Accepted. Last substantive update was January 2024. No recent public evidence of further progress.
Sources
Government response (2018-03-01): Accepted Source: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/topics/ihrd-implementation-programme Text: Guidance being developed in conjunction with statutory duty of candour legislation. Government response (2018-03-01): Accepted in Principle Source: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/topics/ihrd-implementation-programme Text: Being considered alongside duty of candour legislation development. Progress update (2024-01-31): In Progress Implementation status based on Department of Health NI Implementation Programme updates. Note: This tracks key recommendations
full inquiry had 96 recommendations requiring 120 actions. Source: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/topics/ihrd-implementation-programme
How was this evidence gathered?
Evidence searched by baseline-data-v1 on 26 May 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
External sources searched: www.health-ni.gov.uk
Jurisdiction
Northern Ireland
Response
Accepted
Accepted Department of Health NI Initial Response
01 Mar 2018

Guidance being developed in conjunction with statutory duty of candour legislation.

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Accepted in Part Northern Ireland Executive Follow-up
01 Mar 2018

Being considered alongside duty of candour legislation development.

Read Full Response
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.

Not Implemented
06 Feb 2026
Department of Health NI legislation

Guidance on statutory duty of candour cannot be issued as the statutory duty itself has not been enacted.

View detailed findings

Without a statutory duty of candour in NI, the guidance that recommendation 3 requires to accompany it cannot be finalised. A Being Open Framework exists but this is non-statutory guidance, not guidance on a statutory duty.

IHRD Implementation Programme View Source
Source
Inquiry Hyponatraemia Inquiry
Report Report of the Inquiry into Hyponatraemia-related Deaths 31 Jan 2018
View Source
Responsible Bodies
Northern Ireland Executive Primary
Department of Health NI Primary
Themes & Tags
Duty of Candour implementation Duty of Candour Guidance Criminal Law Accountability
Recommendation age 8.3 yrs
Last formal update 851 days ago