Duty of Candour

Last updated: 3 May 2026
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The Duty of Candour applies to all health, social work and care services in Scotland, except childminders. It is about being open and honest when something serious goes wrong during care or treatment.

What is the Duty of Candour?

If a serious adverse event happens, services must:

  • tell the people affected what has happened

  • offer to meet with them to discuss the incident

  • give a sincere apology

  • explain what will be done to learn from the issue and reduce the risk of it happening again

This helps to make sure people are treated with honesty and respect and supports learning and improvement in services.

Annual Duty of Candour reports

Since April 2019, care services and social work services have been required by law to produce a short Duty of Candour report each year.

These reports:

  • explain what services have learned from Duty of Candour incidents

  • confirm how staff have been trained in the Duty of Candour

  • are published publicly

  • are shared with the regulator once published.

Even if no Duty of Candour incidents have taken place in a year, services must still publish a report.

Training and guidance

The Scottish Government provides guidance to help services understand how to meet their Duty of Candour responsibilities. An online learning module is also available to support staff at all levels. Services are encouraged to make sure their staff complete this training.

Monitoring and oversight

When a service notifies a serious incident, it is asked whether the Duty of Candour has been triggered. This helps monitor how the duty is being applied and supports ongoing improvement.

Duty of Candour reports may be reviewed as part of inspections and oversight of care services.

How reporting arrangements were developed

The Scottish Government asked us to lead a working group to shape how Duty of Candour reporting and monitoring should work. This group included representatives from health and social care.

The group recommended that:

  • reporting should be as simple as possible

  • existing systems should be used where they can

  • services should have flexibility in how they record information

These recommendations helped shape the current arrangements in place today.

Further Information

More detailed guidance on the Duty of Candour is available on the Scottish Government website, along with information for people who experience care, families, and professionals.

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