To enable members to conduct themselves properly in the performance of their professional duties, the Institute is obliged to provide a Code of Professional Conduct to lay down, both for its members and for the general public, the ethical standards by which its members should abide. The code will apply to all its members, irrespective of their grade, the professional role they fulfil and the country in which they practice. The code contains, first of all, the specific rules of conduct to which members must adhere.

The rules cover, in plain language, those basic things that members must do. Where appropriate, there are Guidance Notes to help members interpret and apply the rules. The Guidance Notes do cover the main areas of professional activity in which members are likely to be involved. An act which seriously breaches one of the Guidance Notes will probably breach the Rule for Professional Conduct to which the Guidance Note applies.