St Martin's Clinic
Dr Nicholas Cook
Confidentiality
What is confidentiality?
The duty of confidentiality placed on psychologists arises from a variety of obligations imposed by law, derived from acts of parliament, the common law and the European Convention on Human Rights. Confidentiality has been defined by the court (Venables v MGN [2001] 1 All ER 908 per Lady Justice Butler Sloss) as “[a]ll information about the [patients]…whether by records or otherwise, which relates to their medical, psychological or therapeutic care is, in principle, confidential. That confidentiality would, in my view, extend to art, or any other form of therapy, and to all those taking part in group therapy, and not only the therapist…”