Good Public Health Practice

Definitions: what is public health practice?

The practice of public health is defined by the Faculty of Public Health as ’the science and art of promoting and protecting health and wellbeing, preventing ill health and prolonging life through the organised efforts of society’.

Public health practice includes organised efforts to improve health outcomes in those at risk of poorer health. It seeks to address health inequalities across society by tackling wider determinants of health and wellbeing as well as protecting the population from hazards to health.

• Public health practice is population-based.
• It emphasises collective responsibility for health, health protection and disease prevention.
• It recognises the key role of the state, linked to a concern for the underlying socio-economic and wider determinants of health, as well as disease.
• Public health practice also emphasises partnership working with all those who contribute to the health of the population.

Public health practice comprises the three public health domains of health improvement, health protection and healthcare public health. It includes three underlying functions: public health knowledge and intelligence; academic public health; and workforce development.  

More detail about public health definitions can be found in the FPH Functions and Standards document, pages 2-9.

Who is this guidance for?

Public health specialists and practitioners are drawn from a wide variety of professions and disciplines, many of which are governed by professional codes. These include Good Medical Practice, a range of Health and Care Professions Council (HPCP) professional codes and the Civil Service Code of Business Conduct. Together with the Nolan Principles, these codify a common set of behaviours that are expected of any professional in the service of the public. Despite their commonalities, different professional codes have different aims and achieve these often in strikingly different ways.

The primary purpose of a professional code is to promote and support professional behaviours. They are also used by regulators to call professionals to account when their behaviour falls short of those expected.

Public health professionals have to consider their practice and behaviours in the context of Good Public Health Practice, alongside other professional codes. These other codes might be those of the profession they came into public health from, or those that apply in their workplace. It is important that Good Public Health Practice aligns with these other codes to avoid conflicting standards or the possibility of double jeopardy if called to account.

Application

How to use Good Public Health Practice as a public health professional

You should use Good Public Health Practice to apply the standards to your day-to-day public health practice. This means working out how the professional standards are relevant to your circumstances, role, and settings.

Organisations and individuals should implement the guidance in Good Public Health Practice by 1 December 2024.

The basis for good professional practice

This guidance provides the basis for good professional practice in public health, setting out the standards which the Faculty expects all members to work at and within. It applies to all members of the core specialist public health workforce, including public health practitioners, specialists and those training to become practitioners and specialists.

These standards are intended to support the practice of registered public health professionals regardless of whether they are UKPHR, GDC or GMC registrants.

This guidance is designed to:

• Assist the public, public health professionals, colleagues and employers to better understand what good practice in public health should look like.
• Promote and support good public health practice.
• Guide public health professionals when planning their continuing professional development (CPD).
• Act as a source document for public health professionals in preparing for appraisals and revalidation.
• Inform the framework within which public health professionals will be appraised and recommended for revalidation.
• Be a reference source whenever a person’s registration or professional practice is called into question.

This is not statutory guidance, nor is it intended to be an exhaustive resource. It cannot cover all forms of professional practice, nor define all forms of misconduct which may bring your registration or professional practice into question. You must always therefore be prepared to reflect on and be accountable your actions, conduct and decisions.

The standards in this guidance are designed to be complementary to those contained in other professional codes of practice. Doctors regulated by the General Medical Council must meet the standards set out in Good Medical Practice. Good Public Health Practice sets out the standards of practice expected of all registered public health professionals. Those registered with UKPHR must confirm periodically that they are meeting these standards in order to maintain their registration. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are aware of, and adhere to, other professional codes of practice and conduct as set by other organisations and statutory regulatory bodies with which you may be registered, or which may apply to your work.

Relationship to fitness to practice and revalidation

FPH has a wider role in supporting public health and more details about the Faculty’s role in revalidation and fitness to practice can be found here.

These standards describe good practice in public health but deviation from them may not represent a fitness to practice issue. Any fitness to practice concern will be addressed through the relevant regulator's processes. Public health practice is sufficiently distinct from other health related professions that it requires its own code of conduct to recognise that it focusses on groups and populations rather than individuals. Despite this, large parts of Good Public Health Practice are sufficiently similar to other codes to adopt similar terminology. The new revision of Good Medical Practice is particularly helpful in this regard in separating behaviours into ‘musts’ and ‘shoulds’ and Good Public Health Practice adopts this terminology wherever possible. It uses the terms ‘you must’ and ‘you should’ in the following ways.

‘You must’ is used for a legal or ethical duty you’re expected to meet.

'You should’ is used for duties or principles that either may not apply to you or to the situation you’re currently in, or you may not be able to comply with because of factors outside your control.

Domain A: Knowledge, skills and development

Public health practice is a lifelong journey. Keeping pace with rapidly changing social, legal and technological developments means learning new skills while maintaining others. Sharing knowledge – gained through research and innovation, as well as experience – is fundamental to being a public health professional. Good public health professionals are competent, keep their knowledge and skills up to date and provide a good standard of practice and care. They strive to develop and improve their professional performance. They reflect regularly on their standards of practice and use feedback and evidence to develop personal and professional insight.

1. You must be competent in all aspects of your work as a public health professional (including, where applicable, formal leadership or management roles, research and teaching) and retain your competence throughout your working life. It is a personal responsibility to maintain your professional competence and performance. You can do this through regular participation in relevant and appropriate continuing professional development (CPD); reflection on practice; and such forms of appraisal, personal development planning and revalidation as apply to you and your work.
2. You should recognise and work within the limits of your competence, seeking further advice from appropriate bodies (e.g. commissioners, employing organisation) and consulting with colleagues where this is required. There is a responsibility on your managers and/or commissioners not to require you to work beyond your limits of competence. However, the ultimate decision to act, or not to act (in order protect the public) is for you to make and you are expected to say no if necessary.
3. You must keep up to date with guidelines and development that affect your area of public health practice through CPD relevant to your whole scope of practice.
4. You must follow the law and guidance on professional standards and other regulations relevant to your public health practice. Where aspects of public health practice are governed by law or regulated by other statutory codes of practice, you should observe these and keep up to date with changes in them that may affect your practice.
5. You must have the necessary knowledge of the English language to provide a good standard of public health practice in the UK.
6. You have a must provide a good standard of practice to the populations you service. This may include investigating and acting on risks to health; poor outcomes in particular populations; or providing professional advice to others on emerging health issues, based on the best available evidence of information. You should make and record a full assessment of situations, evidence base and rationale for actions including, where necessary, potential negative or unintended consequences of actions and inactions.
7. You must be satisfied that you have valid authority for interventions, including consent where informed consent is required. You should ensure that you are acting in accordance with the appropriate authority for the work you are doing, and that you do not exceed that authority. Remember that in some instances informed consent will be required before carrying out an intervention, such as prophylaxis. This can also include consent for data and research.
8. You must keep your professional knowledge and skills up to date. You should access education, training, mentoring/coaching and quality improvement opportunities and reflect on how these will improve your practice. You must participate in regular professional appraisal (and workplace-based appraisals), continuous professional development and revalidation as appropriate to your professional background.
9. You must be able to receive and act upon feedback on your practice and performance, both positive and negative. Where concerns have been raised in relation to your practice you have a professional responsibility to address these and cooperate with any related investigations. Where positive and constructive feedback is given, you should reflect on how to respond.
10. You must take care to delegate responsibility to others safely. Where a task or area of work is delegated by you to someone else, you must be satisfied that the person to whom you delegate has the qualifications, experience, knowledge and skills to complete the task required. You retain overall management responsibility through delegation of the task; people to whom you delegate will be accountable for their own decisions and actions.
11. You must keep records of important decisions, actions, and consequences. You have a personal responsibility to keep records – these should be clear, accurate, secure, and contemporaneous. Records should report relevant findings, decisions made, the process and who was involved, the information given to colleagues and the public, the resulting action and/or any follow-up. Documentation relating to your work should be held securely, shared appropriately, and accessible to others who may later need to refer back to it or may require access under legislation including the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You should not document or share official information, important decisions or any other information that may be subject to scrutiny or legal challenge using informal (electronic) or volatile media. Any documentation that contains confidential information (including emails) should be held securely and should only be shared in line with organisational and national guidance on information governance.
12. You must provide safe and effective public health advice whether face-to-face, or virtually.
13. You should consider opportunities to conduct or participate in research that may benefit current and/or future patients and help to improve the public health of the population.
14. You must make good use of resources available to you, and provide the best public health service possible, taking into account your responsibilities to population health. You should choose sustainable solutions when you are able to, and support initiatives to reduce the environmental impact.

Domain B: Patients, Partnership and Communication

The approach and attitude of a public health professional can have a lasting impact on populations. Treating individuals, communities and populations with kindness, compassion and respect can profoundly shape their experience of care. Good public health professionals recognise that individuals have diverse needs, and don’t make assumptions about the options or outcomes. They listen and work in partnership with communities and populations, including vulnerable communities. They do their best to make sure everyone receives good care and treatment that will support them to live as well as possible, whatever their illness or disability.

1. You have a duty protect the health and wellbeing of your population. You must treat everyone with kindness, fairness, courtesy and respect. This means communicating sensitively and considerately, listening, not making assumptions and explaining rationale for your advice or decisions, with particular attention to vulnerable groups and individuals within your population. Vulnerable groups and individuals may include (but are not limited to) children and young people, people with physical and/or mental health issues, older people and people in disadvantaged communities. Take special care when seeking vulnerable people’s consent and consult with them or their advocates in appropriate ways to be clear whether consent is being given or withheld. You should offer assistance to vulnerable individuals or groups, including where necessary advocating on their behalf if you have reason to think that their rights have been abused or denied.

When communicating with vulnerable individuals or groups or communities you must:

1. • Treat them with respect and listen to their views, be open and honest and be compassionate with individuals and those supporting them.
   • Answer their questions to the best of your ability.
   • Provide information in a clear way that can be understood.
   • Check information provided has been understood, taking into account language and communication needs, including: any hidden or visible disabilities or impairments, including physical, and relevant psychological, spiritual, social, economic, and cultural factors.
2. Your duty to vulnerable groups extends to their relatives, carers and partners. When dealing with matters concerning vulnerable individuals and vulnerable communities, you must be considerate to relatives, carers, partners, and others close to the person, and be sensitive and responsive in providing information and support. In doing this, you must follow the guidance in relation to confidentiality, information governance and appropriate data sharing (the Caldicott principles ).
3. You must consider the needs and welfare of populations, across the life course, who may be vulnerable, to safeguard children, young people and adults who are at risk of harm, acting promptly on any concerns of risk of, or signs of, abuse or neglect. You must act promptly on any concerns you have.
4. You must plan and act in accordance with available evidence and use resources effectively and efficiently. You should ensure that any actions you take or recommendations that you make in the course of your work are based on a clear analysis of the available intelligence and evidence. You are expected to pay due regard to efficacy and to effective use of resources across partnerships, including:
   • Formulating policies and interventions when you have adequate knowledge of the population’s health and are satisfied that the policies and interventions serve the population’s needs.
   • Formulating effective policies and interventions based on the best available evidence.
   • Taking steps to monitor, evaluate and review the impact of a given course of action where the evidence is unclear or does not exist.
5. You must be professional and ethical in your public health practice at all times. You must not allow your personal views regarding lifestyle choice, culture, belief system, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, marital or parental status, age or social or economic status to affect negatively or to prejudice the professional services you provide or arrange. You must not refuse or delay action that is otherwise justified because you believe that an individual’s or population’s actions have contributed to their situation. You should challenge colleagues and partners if their behaviour does not comply with this guidance. You must not express to individuals and groups you work with your personal beliefs, including political, religious or moral beliefs, in ways that exploit their vulnerability or that are likely to cause them distress. If you have a conscientious objection to a particular public health task or intervention, you must make sure that the way you manage this does not act as a barrier to the needs of the community or population being served.
6. You must make sure that you and other professionals are able to be professional and ethical in your and their public health practice. You must take part in systems of quality assurance and quality improvement to promote safe systems and improved quality of your work. If you have management responsibilities, you should ensure that mechanisms are in place through which colleagues and partners can raise, in confidence, concerns about risks to the public. You must contribute to adverse event recognition and reporting systems. Those public health professionals with additional professional registrations should also pay due regard to relevant codes of conduct.
7. As a public health professional, you must be mindful of your professional communications, including social media. You should be aware that private communication, including instant messaging services, may become public. You must follow this guidance, and declare any conflicts of interest; you must not exploit people’s vulnerability or lack of medical or public health knowledge; and you must make sure that what you communicate is in line with your duty to promote and protect the health and wellbeing of patients, the public and your population. Further guidance is available from GMC on use of social media as well as organisational employer guidance.
8. You must maintain financial rectitude in all your public health practice dealings. You must make sure that the funds you manage and/or receive for use in connection with your public health practice are used for the purpose for which they were intended. If you have responsibility for managing finance, you must ensure that there are processes in place to provide financial assurance and that these are followed.
9. You must declare any relevant commercial or financial conflicts of interests you may have. In any professional setting where your sphere of influence could lead to an actual or a perceived beneficial financial or commercial advantage, you must be completely transparent and accountable in the decisions you make, and the decisions you withdraw from making. This includes keeping records and publishing these records to relevant audiences. It is essential that any relevant interests you have do not affect and are seen not to affect your professional judgement of standards of practice.
10. You must not allow your own health and wellbeing to affect adversely your professional practice. If you know or suspect that you have a condition which could harm colleagues or communities (including vulnerable communities) you come into contact with, or which could impair your professional judgement or performance, you must inform a suitably qualified individual. You must act on the advice that you are given as to what action needs to be taken.
11. You must have in place arrangements to compensate anybody who may suffer as a result of deficiencies in your work or that of your team. You must check whether your employer or commissioner has appropriate insurance cover, and you must take out adequate insurance including professional indemnity cover for any part of your practice not covered by such insurance in the interest of all individuals and groups you work with as well as your own.
12. You must conduct research (including designing, organising and carrying out research) with honesty and integrity. If you take part in or arrange clinical trials, or other research involving the public, you must make sure that the individuals concerned give fully informed written consent to take part and that the research is not contrary to an individual's interests. You should always seek further advice where your research involves individuals who are not able to make decisions for themselves. You may also benefit from additional advice where your research involves children. You must check that the research protocol has been approved by a properly constituted research ethics committee. In all cases:
    • Put the protection of the participants’ interests first.
    • Follow all aspects of the research protocol.
    • Follow the appropriate national research governance guidelines.
    • Ensure that your conduct is not influenced by payments, gifts or other gratuities.
    • Accept only those payments approved by a research ethics committee.
    • Always record your research results truthfully and at all times maintain accurate records.
    • When publishing results, you must not make unjustified claims for authorship.
    • You have a duty to report evidence of fraud or misconduct in research to an appropriate person or authority.
13. You must be open and honest when things go wrong and respond to concerns and complaints. Individuals or populations who raise concerns or complain about services they have received (or not received) have a right to expect a response which:
    1. Is prompt and appropriate, includes an explanation and, if possible, how to put it right.
    2. Includes an apology (apologising does not mean that you are admitting legal liability for what’s happened).
14. Additionally, you should co-operate fully with any complaints procedure that applies to your (or a colleague’s) work. You must not allow an individual’s (or community’s) complaint to prejudice the advice you give, or interventions you may arrange for them.
15. You must respond, when and where you are able, in emergencies. You have a duty to offer help in an emergency, within your competence and safety, in the absence of other more qualified or able people on scene.  

Domain C: Colleagues, Culture and Safety

Culture is determined by the shared values and behaviours of a group of people. Everyone has the right to work and train in an environment which is fair, free from discrimination, and where they are respected and valued as an individual. Good public health professionals communicate clearly and work effectively with colleagues in the interests of populations. They develop their self-awareness, manage their impact on others, and do what they can to help create civil and compassionate cultures where all staff can ask questions, talk about errors and raise concerns safely.

1. You must work in, and manage, partnerships and teams effectively and with due consideration of others treating them with kindness, fairness, courtesy and respect. Public health professionals will be expected to manage, develop and foster collaborative relationships across organisations with colleagues, communities, the wider public and sometimes individual patients. Successful relationships depend on trust, openness, transparency and good communication. Elements of effective and successful relationships include: compassion; listening to and respecting the views of others; responding honestly; using accessible and appropriate language and media for the audience; understanding the implications of sharing information with wider audiences and respecting confidentiality.
2. You must be open and honest with patients and families, and make sure that relevant information is shared. This includes complying with duty of candour responsibilities when things go wrong and includes saying sorry and taking action to put things right where possible. You must ensure that information is not withheld, where it may affect a decision or course of action that would have an impact of health.
3. You must ensure truthful and meaningful communications. Appropriate steps should be taken to ensure that all communities (including marginalised and minority groups) are able to: contribute to the design of services and interventions; co-produce interventions and services where appropriate; assist in identifying and utilising community assets effectively; and help monitor outcomes so as to protect health and improve health and wellbeing. It is a key principle of public health practice that you should work with and mobilise communities and individuals to facilitate and support them to develop solutions to address their health and wellbeing needs (including advocating for them where necessary) through community development models of practice.
4. You must make sure information to be shared is meaningful. You must share with the public, in a way they can understand, the information they want or need to know about their health and health care and the health options available to them, including associated risks and uncertainties. You should respond to the public’s questions and keep them informed about the progress of interventions aimed at improving their health.
5. You must respect the right of people to decline to take part in interventions, initiatives, teaching or research even if it may be of benefit to them. Respect for human rights, for freedom of choice and for the preferences individuals and groups may have are key to public health practice. Where you believe that individuals are making decisions harmful to their own (or others’) health and wellbeing:
   • consider the effect on others;
   • be sure to provide relevant information;
   • leave the door open to reconsideration later and return to the issue from time to time later; and
   • consider if others within their community may be able to exercise helpful influence.
6. You must maintain your focus on the effectiveness of interventions. Focus on the health impacts of your professional contribution when designing, working on, and evaluating interventions, including collaboratively across partnerships. Population-based and individual-based outcomes are at the core of the public health contribution. Where a given course of action has potential to increase health inequalities, public health professionals must highlight this, and where necessary advocate for actions that will avert any adverse impact.
7. You must treat colleagues and individuals fairly and with kindness, courtesy and respect, to contribute to a positive working environment. You must work collaboratively with colleagues, respecting their skills and contributions. You must not subject them to bullying or harassment, or unfairly discriminate against them by allowing your personal views to affect adversely your professional relationship with them. You should challenge colleagues if their behaviour does not comply with this guidance. Where colleagues are experiencing health or performance problems, you should be supportive of them. However, this support should not compromise or be at the expense of public safety. If you are an employer or manager, you should take any bullying or discrimination complaint seriously and investigate it as soon as possible, ensuring that you are aware of the relevant policies and procedures in your organisation.
8. You have a professional responsibility to support trainees and colleagues in your training environment, through formal supervision, formal and informal mentoring, and modelling professional public health practice. This support includes providing honest and objective assessment of performance, and supporting trainees or staff you manage with appropriate levels of supervision. Be prepared to raise concerns about competence where unsatisfactory standards of practice are evident. Communities and the public may be put at risk if you confirm the competence of someone who has not met the required standard of practice.
9. You should role model behaviours consistent with your organisation’s values and be aware of how your behaviour may influence others within and outside of your team and training environment. You should always respect others and not abuse or discriminate (based on any protected characteristic) or bully or harass others. You should be aware of risk of bias, and consider how your own life experience, culture and beliefs can influence your interactions with others, and may impact on your decisions and actions. You should consider what active steps you can take to avoid bias when making decisions.
10. You should demonstrate and maintain required leadership behaviours at all times. This includes supervision, appraisals and performance management, providing professional support through mentoring, coaching, teaching and training and ensuring fair access to training, development and employment opportunities. If you delegate, you have a responsibility to ensure that any person you delegate to has the required knowledge, skills, and training to carry out the delegated task and that you provide them with clear instructions and support.
11. You should record your work clearly, accurately and legibly. You must make sure that formal records of your work (including patients’ records during outbreaks) are clear, accurate and legible; these notes should be made at the time or as soon as possible afterwards. You should take a proportionate approach to the level of detail and keep records securely and in line with data protection laws where they contain personal information.
12. You should ensure you keep patients safe. You should be familiar with clinical governance and risk management structures and processes in your organisation. You must contribute to confidential inquiries, incident reviews and investigations, and respond to requests from organisations monitoring public health. You should respond promptly to any safety risks, such as concerns that a colleague is not fit to practise, putting a patient at risk.
13. You should manage risks posed by your health. You should try to take care of your own health and wellbeing, recognising if you may not be fit for work. You must seek advice from qualified professionals and follow their advice if your judgement or performance could be affected by a condition. You should be immunised against common serious communicable diseases (unless contraindicated).

Domain D: Trust and Professionalism

Populations and communities must be able to trust public health professionals, and public health professionals must be able to trust each other. Good public health professionals uphold high personal and professional standards of conduct. They are honest and trustworthy, act with integrity, maintain professional boundaries and do not let their personal interests affect their professional judgements or actions.

1. You must ensure at all times that your standards of practice justify the public’s trust in your work, and in the work of the wider public health profession. You must ensure that your conduct justifies the trust and confidence of the populations that you serve. In order to do that you must be prepared to be accountable for your professional actions and engage constructively with organisations and individuals, including elected members, who have a legitimate reason to scrutinise your professional activities. This means acting with honesty and integrity including in your public health practice and public health research:
   • Integrity: put your service obligations above your personal interests.
   • Honesty: be truthful and open.
   • Objectivity: base advice and decisions on rigorous analysis of evidence.
   • Impartiality: act solely according to the merits of a case without prejudice.
2. You must maintain personal and professional boundaries. As a public health leader or manager, if you are made aware of inappropriate behaviours, including inappropriate sexual behaviours, you must act to ensure these behaviours are addressed, individuals affected are supported and concerns are dealt with promptly. You should be aware of relevant new legislation, including the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 which introduces a new duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.
3. You must be honest and trustworthy in all your professional written, verbal, and digital communications and maintain patient confidentiality. It is your responsibility to check communications are accurate, relevant, do not minimise or trivialise risks of harm and do not present opinion as fact.
4. As a public health professional, you must be mindful of your professional communications, including social media advertising your services or endorsing or promoting services or products. You should be aware that private communication, including instant messaging services, may become public.
5. You must any declare any conflict of interest, including financial and commercial conflicts. You must not exploit vulnerabilities, and ensure you fulfil your duty to promote and protect the health of the public or population. You must not allow any interests you have to affect or be seen to affect the way you commission public health services.
6. You must disclose professionally facts which may have a bearing on your professional performance. You must always be honest about your experience, qualifications, and position, particularly when applying for posts. You must inform your regulator and professional body without delay if, anywhere in the world: you have accepted a caution; been charged with or found guilty of a criminal offence; or if another professional body has made a finding against your registration as a result of fitness to practise procedures. If you are suspended from a post (or have restrictions placed upon your practice) because of concerns about your standard of practice, performance or conduct, you must inform any other organisations for whom you undertake similar work. Independently of such organisations, you must also inform individuals, communities or populations that you work with, if the advice or services you provide are within the area of concern relating to the suspension or restriction.
7. You must be vigilant about issues concerning data confidentiality and data protection. When handling information about individuals or communities, you must ensure that information is dealt with in a sensitive way and confidentiality is maintained where required. This may include seeking the consent of individuals prior to sharing information. Exceptions to this may occur where there is a balance of greater risk to the population through non-disclosure. Such cases may require further specific clinical or legal advice.
8. You must be honest and objective when assessing the performance of those you have supervised, trained, or worked with. Your duty of candour extends to your assessment of colleagues, locums, and students. Communities and the public may be put at risk if you confirm the competence of someone who has not reached or maintained a satisfactory standard of practice.
9. You must be honest and trustworthy when writing reports, and when completing or signing references, forms, reports and other documents. You must do your best to make sure that any documents you write, or sign are not false or misleading. This means that you must take reasonable steps to verify the information in the documents, and that you must not deliberately leave out relevant information. If you have agreed to prepare a report, complete or sign a document or provide evidence, you must do so without unreasonable delay.
10. You must co-operate with legitimate requests for information from official organisations monitoring public health. As a general rule, you should respond to requests for information from official sources with due regard to your duty not to disclose confidential information without consent. However, there are situations where the official request for information may override your duty of confidentiality. In cases of doubt or uncertainty, you should seek professional and/or legal advice before responding to any part of a request where confidentiality is an issue.
11. You must disclose to anyone entitled to ask for it any information relevant to an investigation into your own (or a colleague’s) conduct, performance, or health. You must co-operate fully with any formal inquiry into the treatment of a patient or the public, and with any complaints procedure that applies to your work. You must take part in and/or contribute to confidential inquiries and critical incident reporting, to help reduce the risk to communities and the public. You must assist a coroner or procurator fiscal in an inquest or inquiry by responding to their enquiries and by offering all relevant information. You are entitled to remain silent only when your evidence may lead to criminal proceedings being taken against you. If you are asked to give evidence or act as a witness in litigation or formal inquiries, you must be honest in all your spoken and written statements. You must make clear the limits of your knowledge or competence.
12. Advertising of your services must be truthful, honest, legal and decent. If you publish or broadcast information, that information must be factual and verifiable. It must be published in a way that conforms with the law and with the guidance issued by the Advertising Standards Authority. If you publish information about specialist services, you must still follow the guidance. You must not make unjustifiable claims about the quality or outcomes of your services in any information you provide to the public. Information you publish about your services must not put pressure or undue influence on people to use a particular service, for example, by needlessly arousing concerns or fears about future health and wellbeing.