Advance Care Directives Regulations 2014

For the purposes of section 15(1)(a) of the Act, an advance care directive will only be taken to be witnessed in accordance with these regulations if—

in the case where 1 or more substitute decision‑makers are appointed under the advance care directive—each substitute decision‑maker has complied with regulation 8(1) before the advance care directive is witnessed; and

in any case—the person giving the advance care directive signs the advance care directive form in the presence of the suitable witness who witnesses the advance care directive.

For the purposes of section 15(1)(b)(i) of the Act, a suitable witness must give to the person giving the advance care directive a copy of the advance care directive information statement (and compliance with this requirement will, for the purposes of section 15(1)(b)(ii) of the

For the purposes of the definition of suitable witness in section 15(4) of the Act, a suitable witness must satisfy the following requirements:

the suitable witness must be a competent adult;

the suitable witness must be a person, or a person of a class, included on the list of suitable witnesses set out in

To avoid doubt, nothing in subregulation (3) affects an advance care directive witnessed by a suitable witness who was competent at the time he or she witnessed the advance care directive, but who later lost competency.

In this regulation—