Professor Kieran Murphy:

The first question related to paragraph 21.1 of our submission, the final sentence of which is: "You should undertake a full assessment of any such risk in the light of the clinical research on this issue." As I noted earlier, medicine is continuously evolving and it is a principle of the council that doctors must ensure that they remain up to date. Within their particular field it is important that doctors' knowledge and skills remain current. This was one of the prime reasons for the introduction of mandatory professional competence and there is a requirement now for all doctors to ensure that their practice, knowledge and skills remain current and up to date. This is to ensure that the protection of the public is maintained.

There was a question about current research. Clearly, this relates to doctors' need to be informed of all research in their area to ensure they are enabled to make the correct and appropriate decision and to ensure they serve the interests of their patients. I noted earlier that doctors should be guided by their primary responsibility to act in the best interests of the patient.

I regret that the Deputy believes paragraph 21.4 of our submission is unclear.

As Ms Spillane outlined earlier and as we outlined in our submission, the guide the Medical Council produced in 2009 was developed following extensive consultation with doctors, the public, medical schools, postgraduate medical training bodies, Departments, employers and a range of other stakeholders. In order to ensure the guide was as relevant as possible, the council established an ethics working group to oversee the development of the guide. This multi-stakeholder working group, which included council members and non-council members, including a number of medical and non-medical experts, was established to ensure that the guidance was both evidence-based and developed in line with best practice.

Also, which I did not say before, the council was exercised to ensure that members of the public could also have access to the guide. We obtained a plain English mark from the National Adult Literacy Agency. The mark can be seen on the inside cover of the guide. The mark reflects the desire of the council that patients and members of the public should be able to understand the standards the council expects of doctors. Members of the public need to understand the standards doctors are judged by and are obliged to adhere to.

We have tried extremely hard to ensure maximum levels of consultation in the development of our guidance. We worked hard to ensure that the language of the guide is as accessible as possible to all members of society, both doctors and members of the public.