Information sharing principles

Purpose and context

This guide supports doctors, responsible officers and suitable persons, and organisations to understand their responsibilities for sharing information.

Timely sharing of information is an essential part of robust clinical governance. We have created these information sharing principles with the support of partner organisations.

They are designed to support the development of common practice across the UK healthcare system. 

Consistently sharing information about doctors: 

• helps to ensure patient safety,
• supports the doctors involved, and
• promotes public confidence

These principles:

• apply to all doctors – whatever the nature or location of their work
• apply to all organisations or individuals who contract with or use the services of doctors
• support responsible officers in their statutory duty to make sure that appraisal and revalidation processes take account of information covering a doctor’s whole scope of practice
• define minimum expectations, rather than exhaustive guidance, for sharing information when doctors work in multiple locations or move between roles.