RECORDREFERENCE OUTLINE

Informed Consent Process Record

Consent record covering what a monitor actually reconstructs: form version against its approval date, who conducted the discussion and whether they were delegated to, time allowed, an explicit sequence check that no trial procedure preceded the signature and that the participant dated it personally, the process note, and re-consent tracked with an outstanding column. Maps to 21 CFR Part 50 and ICH E6(R3).

What a template is not

A template is a document baseline to adapt inside your own quality system. SPEQ does not approve, validate, or take responsibility for what you issue from it, and using one is not evidence of compliance.

CHECKING ACCESS

Checking your Professional access…

REGULATIONS MAPPED
21 CFR Part 50ICH E6(R3)
DOCUMENT TYPE
Record
LAST UPDATED
August 2026
PURPOSE

Consent is the one procedure where the regulatory and the ethical obligation are the same thing, and it remains among the most frequently cited deficiencies in clinical inspections. The failures are almost never about the form itself — they are about what happened around the signature: the version used, who conducted the discussion, whether they were delegated to do it, and what preceded it.

What's Inside

Participant identifier and consent form version, checked against the date that version was actually approved
The consent discussion — who conducted it, when, in what setting, and how much time was allowed
Delegation check confirming the person conducting the discussion was authorised on the delegation log
Questions asked and answered, recorded as substance rather than as a tick confirming the opportunity existed
Signature block with an explicit sequence check that no trial procedure preceded the participant’s signature
Process note for the participant record, written to be reconstructable by someone who was not present
Re-consent tracking with an outstanding column, so who still needs re-consenting stays visible

How to Use It

1Verify the form version against its approval date before the discussion begins, rather than when a monitor asks afterwards
2Confirm the person taking consent appears on the delegation log for that task on that date
3Check that no trial procedure preceded the signature; a clinically indicated procedure belongs in the medical record as care
4Have the participant date the form personally — a date entered by site staff is a routine and entirely avoidable finding
5Write the process note so a monitor can reconstruct the discussion, because the signature alone evidences nothing about it
6Track re-consent as a controlled list, since after a safety update the real question is who remains outstanding
DOCUMENT CONTENTS

The full section structure of this template — every section and sub-section, so you can use it as a baseline for your own site document.

Document Control
Document InformationApproval SignaturesRevision HistoryDistribution List
1Participant and Form Version
2The Consent Discussion
3Signature and Sequence
4Process Note for the Participant Record
5Re-Consent
REGULATORY CONTEXT

21 CFR Part 50 sets the US informed-consent requirements, including the required elements, documentation, and the rule that consent precedes any research procedure; ICH E6(R3) sets the good clinical practice expectations for the consent process and for re-consent when new information arises. Neither decides how much time a participant needs, which staff may take consent at your site, or what a process note must contain — those are the investigator’s determinations. The record structure is SPEQ synthesis.

MAPPED STANDARDS
21 CFR Part 50ICH E6(R3)
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