Professional Ethics in UK Law

Unless the paper chose later to withdraw the allegations, the politician thus defamed would have no means of clearing his name, and the public would have no means of knowing where the truth lay. Some further protection for reputation is needed if this can be achieved without a disproportionate incursion into freedom of expression.

Unfortunately, in the United Kingdom this would not generally be thought to provide a sufficient safeguard. From time to time mistakes are bound to occur, even in the best regulated circles. Making every allowance for this, the sad reality is that the overall handling of these matters by the national press, with its own commercial interests to serve, does not always command general confidence.

It is nevertheless the function of the judges to state the legal principles upon which the lawfulness of the actions of doctors depend; but in the end the decisions to be made in individual cases must rest with the doctors themselves. Mutual understanding between the doctors and the judges is the best way to ensure the evolution of a sensitive and sensible legal framework for the treatment and care of patients, with a sound ethical base, in the interest of the patients themselves.

However, as we have set out at paragraphs 43–44 above, these allegations rest upon what the SFO were told by Grant Thornton on and after 9 September 2010. We only have the notes of the meeting and not the copy of the report of Grant Thornton. They declined in answer to a request from VT to make available the evidence on which such serious allegations were advanced to the SFO.

Lord Goldsmith severely criticised this conduct of Grant Thornton, having put them on notice on 15 March 2012 and invited them to become a party to the proceedings and to state whether the allegations were maintained. Grant Thornton acknowledged the receipt of this notice in a letter written by their solicitors on 9 May 2012.

Rather what he says in relevant respect is that the Report was "commissioned" in order to "assist" the Joint Liquidators in formulating their response to the Guernsey Proceedings; that the recovery available to Oscatello was materially different depending on a number of scenarios; and that it was prepared "entirely" to enable the Joint Liquidators and their legal advisors to respond to varying scenarios and to prepare a Defence and Counterclaim.

I should emphasise that this is not a case in which some past act on the part of a doctor is being called into question. If the issue was whether such an act had given rise to civil or criminal liability, the fact that the doctor has acted in accordance with responsible professional opinion would usually be determinative. But in this case the plaintiff hospital trust is seeking the opinion of the court as to whether future conduct will be lawful.