In order to clarify the fundamental principles underpinning the provision of information, the Royal College of Anaesthetists set up a two-year project to study existing practice and develop methods of writing new material.

We demonstrated with the audit recipe book Raising the Standard – A Compendium of Audit Recipes that it was possible to bring an ordered discipline to audit, and thus allow the quality of anaesthetic practice to be measured in an objective way. We hoped to bring a similar order to the provision of information for patients; it was not that simple...