Medical Law and Ethics Course: What It Covers for UK Clinicians

Written and reviewed by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, MBBS, MRCS, MRCGP, Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics · Updated 4 November 2026

Medical law and medical ethics: how they fit together

Medical ethics gives the reasons for a decision: respect for the patient’s choices, doing good, avoiding harm and fairness. Medical law sets the minimum the courts will enforce. Your regulator’s standards sit between the two, and a fitness to practise concern is judged against those standards, not against the law alone. A course that covers only the principles leaves you unsure of the legal test; a course that covers only the law leaves you unable to explain your reasoning. A good medical law and ethics course does both, topic by topic. Why ethics matters in practice is in our guide to what medical ethics is and why it is important.

Consent and the Montgomery judgment

In Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board (March 2015), the Supreme Court held unanimously that a risk is material, and must be discussed, if a reasonable person in the patient’s position would be likely to attach significance to it, or if the doctor is or should reasonably be aware that this patient would. The court made clear that the Bolam test, what a responsible body of doctors would do, does not apply to discussing risks.

The GMC intervened in the case to explain its guidance, and the court endorsed the GMC’s approach of decisions made in partnership. In practice, a course should cover:

• consent as a dialogue about what matters to this patient, not a list of numbers;
• the narrow exception where telling a patient about a risk would seriously harm their health;
• what to do when a patient says they do not want to discuss risks, and how to record it.

How the GMC investigates a consent concern is in our guide to consent failures and the GMC.

Mental capacity and best interests

In England and Wales, section 1 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 sets five principles that every clinician applies:

1. a person must be assumed to have capacity unless it is established that they lack it;
2. a person is not to be treated as unable to make a decision unless all practicable steps to help them have been taken without success;
3. a person is not to be treated as unable to make a decision merely because they make an unwise decision;
4. an act done or decision made for a person who lacks capacity must be in their best interests;
5. before acting, you consider whether the purpose can be achieved in a way that is less restrictive of the person’s rights and freedom of action.

Capacity is assessed for each decision, at the time it needs to be made. The ethical side is respect for a refusal you disagree with; the legal side is the test and the record. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own capacity laws, so a course should say which it covers.

Confidentiality and disclosure

The GMC describes confidentiality as an important ethical and legal duty that is not absolute. Its framework allows disclosure in four situations:

• with the patient’s consent, explicit or, for direct care and local clinical audit, implied;
• for the overall benefit of a patient who lacks capacity, in line with capacity law;
• where the law requires or permits it, such as a statute or a court order;
• in the public interest, where the benefit of disclosure outweighs the patient’s and the public’s interest in confidentiality, for example to prevent death or serious harm.

In each case, the GMC asks you to share the minimum needed, use anonymised information where it serves the purpose, and record your decision and reasons. How a breach is investigated is in our guide to confidentiality breaches and the GMC.

Candour and records

Candour has two parts. Every registered professional has a professional duty to be open with a patient when something goes wrong in their care. In England, care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission also have a statutory duty of candour under regulation 20 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, for notifiable safety incidents. A course should explain both, and how they meet. Our guide to the duty of candour in healthcare covers it in full.

Records tie the topics together. The consent discussion, the capacity assessment, the reason for a disclosure and what you told a patient after an incident each need a clear, dated note. When a complaint arrives, the record is the first thing anyone reads; see our guide to record keeping in healthcare.

Choosing a medical law and ethics course

Ask four questions of any course:

1. Does it cover the law and the ethics of each topic? Consent, capacity, confidentiality and candour, with the legal test and the reasoning.
2. Does it fit a complaint as well as CPD? If a concern has been raised, the course should help you write about insight and remediation, not only pass a quiz.
3. Does it give a dated certificate and CPD hours? You need both for appraisal, revalidation or your regulator’s CPD record.
4. Is it for your register? The law is shared; the standards differ. A course that names your regulator’s standards saves you the translation.

If the concern is about one topic only, a focused course on that topic sits better beside the broad one. More on ethics CPD is in our guide to the ethics CPD course.

Our course for a complaint and for CPD

Courses that sit beside it

A team buying for its clinicians can use Bulk Buy: £200 for 3 courses, £300 for 5, £500 for 10. Not sure which course fits? Book a free 15-minute call or see which course do I need.

Guides that help

The CPD courses linked from this guide, Medical Ethics Course, Ethics and Ethical Standards for Doctors, Privacy, Consent and Chaperone in Healthcare Practice and Ensuring Confidentiality in Healthcare Practice, are by Probity & Ethics, written by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, CPD certified and accredited by The CPD Certification Service (provider no. 13197) and offered since 2020.

Questions and answers