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The new contract is designed to recognise a range of possible circumstances where it is in the wider interests of the NHS for consultants to be allowed time - as part of their NHS programmed activities - for work done outside the employing organisation.  This includes reasonable quantities of work for the Royal Colleges in the interests of the NHS, appropriate work for the Courts as witnesses in Child Protection and other legal proceedings as well as serving on ethical and research committees and reasonable quantities of work for a Government Department - other examples are listed in definitions of 'external duties' in the Terms and Conditions of Service.

The inclusion of such activities in job plans is a matter for agreement between employers and consultants.  It remains, however, the policy of the Department of Health to encourage NHS organisations to release consultants for work that is necessary for the broader benefit of the NHS.