Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to review protocols around medical consent.

Consent to care and treatment is a regulated activity in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2009, which set out that the registered person must have suitable arrangements in place for obtaining, and acting in accordance with, the consent of service users in relation to the care and treatment provided for them.

Protocols around obtaining medical consent are set out in professional guidance from the General Medical Council, Decision making and consent. This includes advice on what professionals should tell patients and what they should record. The guidance came into effect in 2020 and was updated in 2024. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gmc-uk.org/professional-standards/the-professional-standards/decision-making-and-consent