Duty of candour: a statutory obligation or just the right thing to do?

In 1990 the case of Robbie Powell catalogued a story of medical errors and neglect that ultimately lead to his untimely death from Addison’s disease at 10 years of age. In this high-profile case, the child’s father felt that events were made even more unbearable by failures of health care providers to offer credible explanations for what had occurred and subsequently by the detrimental actions of investigatory bodies.¹ Despite tireless and tenacious legal challenges, Robbie Powell’s father was denied the truth for nearly 2 decades. It is now established that forgery and falsification of patient medical records occurred and investigations were plagued by conflict of interest and dishonesty, including cabinet ministers providing false parliamentary answers.² Indeed, two Police Complaints Authority investigations into the...