Code of Professional Conduct section 13
A member may use a digital tool to assist their practice. What a member may not do is let an unprotected tool hold the client's information, make the professional judgement, or carry the responsibility for what comes out.
What the Code requires
The Code addresses AI and other digital tools in a single clause of section 13. It permits their use, and then fixes five duties that attach to that use. They apply at every tier, to every member, whatever the tool.
01
Where members use artificial intelligence or other digital tools to assist their practice (for example for note-taking, drafting, or psychoeducational content), they must do so transparently and responsibly.
02
Members may not enter identifiable client information into any tool that does not provide adequate confidentiality and data protection.
03
Members may not delegate professional judgement, risk assessment, or referral decisions to an automated tool.
04
Members remain personally accountable for all work produced with such assistance.
05
Members may not represent automated output as professional advice beyond their areas of competence.
These five restate a single clause, lightly adapted so each duty reads on its own. The clause itself, word for word, is in the Code of Professional Conduct, section 13.4.
The clause it sits beside
Section 13 of the Code governs research, technology and online practice, in five clauses. The five duties above restate one of them, clause 13.4. The clause immediately before it governs digital privacy, and is published here in full, with its number.
13.3
Members must protect client privacy in all digital communication. Members may not conduct identifiable client work over unsecured channels and must obtain the client’s informed consent before recording any session, storing notes electronically, or using any client material beyond the counselling relationship.
Read together, the two clauses answer different questions. Clause 13.3 governs where identifiable client material may go at all. Clause 13.4 governs what happens once a tool is involved in producing the work.
Where the responsibility lands
Nothing produced with a tool's assistance travels under a lighter standard. The work is judged as the member's work, against the same areas of competence, the same absolute limitations, and the same Code that governs everything else the member does.