Sir, regarding the recently published article by Asma Keshtgar et al., entitled 'Consent and parental responsibility - the past, the present and the future' (BDJ 2022; 232: 115-119), I wanted to congratulate all three authors on a very erudite and extremely helpful publication on a topic that is of great clinical importance.

I was also involved in publishing results of a national audit on the understanding of consent amongst consultant orthodontists 14 years ago and my hygienist wife and I, although now both retired, currently participate in the national COVID-19 vaccination programme and from here on, we will both be using the very succinct and user-friendly flowchart and the Parental Responsibility Form contained in this article, in order to help clarify issues of parental responsibility when they might arise, ie as and when a child is brought for vaccination by someone other than their biological mother and who is also deemed not to have Gillick competence.