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IHRD-4 Accepted in Part

Trust Awareness of Duty of Candour

Hyponatraemia Inquiry · Report of the Inquiry into Hyponatraemia-related Deaths · Issued 31 January 2018 · Addressed to: Northern Ireland Executive, HSC Trusts

Source — verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation

Trusts should ensure that all healthcare professionals are made fully aware of the importance, meaning and implications of the duty of candour and its critical role in the provision of healthcare.

Hyponatraemia Inquiry, Report of the Inquiry into Hyponatraemia-related Deaths · 31 Jan 2018 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:

- The Department of Health NI reported that work to raise awareness of the duty of candour among healthcare staff was being taken forward (IHRD Implementation Programme, Department of Health NI, March 2018).
- A Being Open Framework has been implemented across HSC Trusts on a non-statutory basis, including staff training on candour principles (Department of Health NI Progress Report, December 2018).
- In December 2024, the Department launched a public consultation on formalising the Being Open Framework alongside a statutory duty of candour (Being Open Framework and Duty of Candour Consultation, Department of Health NI, December 2024).
- The framework remains non-statutory; the statutory duty of candour recommended by the Inquiry has not been enacted.
How was this evidence gathered?
Evidence searched by Claude (Anthropic) on 17 Jul 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
This recommendation asks for cultural or behavioural change, which is difficult to verify from published sources alone. The evidence above reflects policy commitments rather than measured outcomes.

Response — verbatim from government

●Northern Ireland Executive — initial response

Reviewed in context of workforce planning. Some concerns raised by Royal Colleges about potential de-skilling impacts. Implementation being balanced against training needs.

Northern Ireland Executive · 1 Mar 2018 Written response →

●HSC Trusts — follow-up

Being Open Framework implemented across Trusts. Training provided to staff on duty of candour principles.

HSC Trusts · 1 Mar 2018 Written response →

Evidence trail — what's actually happened since

  • 6 Feb 2026 · HSC Trusts / Department of Health NI A Being Open Framework has been implemented across HSC Trusts with staff training on candour principles, but this is non-statutory and lacks enforcement mechanisms. View source → Reasonable Progress

Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.

How this page is built

Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.

This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.