An essential guide to Consent Post date: 04/07/2017 | Time to read article: 1 mins The information within this article was correct at the time of publishing. Last updated 18/05/2020 Written by a senior professional Generic Medicine Managing clinical risk Download guide This Essential Guide was produced as a resource for Medical Protection members in the UK. It is intended as general guidance only. Introduction Consent is a fundamental principle of medical law. The basic rule is simple: no-one has the right to touch anyone else without lawful excuse and if doctors do so it may well undermine patients’ trust. Such behaviour may lead to a clinical negligence claim, a complaint to the GMC or even civil or criminal proceedings for assault. There are three components to valid consent: Capacity Voluntariness Cases Medical Protection members are always welcome to telephone our medicolegal advice line for more specific practical advice and support with medicolegal issues that may arise. Alternatively, members may submit a medicolegal query online. Click here to go to our medicolegal advice page. Share this article Share Tweet