The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has strengthened its requirements for how clinics should take consent from patients and partners in 2016.

The new edition of the HFEA’s Code of Practice, to be published shortly, will provide further guidance on the processes clinics should have in place to ensure consent is informed, taken properly and given by the right person. The guidance states that consent should be given at the clinic, where possible, and where this is not possible, that there should be a documented process in place for ensuring consent has been given by the right person. In particular, clinics need to be satisfied about the patients’ legal relationships to each other and, where the partner of a patient has not visited the clinic or does not return for subsequent treatment, the clinic should take reasonable steps to find out if the partner still consents to treatment.