Common purpose / Patients and families
Candour
A duty to be open after harm is now written into law. Inquiries keep finding that families were not told what happened, or were told late, so the duty is not the same as the practice.
16 reviews · 12 recommendations
Reviews, most recent first
- 2026Amos maternity investigation
Baroness Valerie Amos
- 2026Thirlwall Inquiry
Lady Justice Thirlwall
- 202510 Year Health Plan
Department of Health and Social Care
- 2024Infected Blood Inquiry
Sir Brian Langstaff
- 2022Neurology Inquiry (Watt)
Brett Lockhart KC
- 2020Cumberlege review
Baroness Cumberlege
- 2020Paterson Inquiry
Rt Revd Graham James
- 2019Richards screening review
Professor Sir Mike Richards
- 2018Hyponatraemia Inquiry
Mr Justice O'Hara
- 2018Williams review
Professor Sir Norman Williams
- 2015Morecambe Bay
Dr Bill Kirkup
- 2015Penrose Inquiry
The Rt Hon Lord Penrose
- 2013Berwick review
Professor Don Berwick
- 2013Francis public inquiry
Sir Robert Francis KC
- 2001Alder Hey (Redfern)
Michael Redfern KC
- 2001Bristol Royal Infirmary
Professor Sir Ian Kennedy
What they asked for
Improve the quality and transparency of investigations, and show that learning is acted on.
DHSC, NHS England and CQC
Place an individual duty of candour on managers, and amend the management code so that patient safety is the first duty.
DHSC and NHS England
Put a duty of candour on the state and its agencies, not only on healthcare providers.
Government
Give boards a clearer duty to act on outlier clinical practice and to recall patients promptly.
Department of Health, Northern Ireland
Apologise to the families affected.
Government
Give patients one story of their care, written so they can understand what was done.
Providers
Be open with people who were not invited, and offer them a route back into the programme.
NHS England
Introduce a statutory duty of candour in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland Executive
Separate a just approach to error from the need to act on conduct that endangers patients.
Regulators and employers
Reserve criminal prosecution for wilful or reckless neglect, so that staff can still be honest about error.
Government
Put a statutory duty of candour on organisations when patients are harmed.
Government
Require explicit consent for the retention and use of tissue after death.
Government