Agreed upon principles within an industry relating to practices, technical requirements, corporate responsibilities or other activities that are designed to regulate and uphold the standard of the profession. These may be established by an industry body or in consultation with government and are a means of self-regulation. A code of practice is a guide to achieving safety, welfare and health standards; the document helps to provide guidance on how to comply with legal requirements.

It is important and essential for an organisation to have a code of practice in place for the safety of both the workplace and employees; in a case of a dismissal, an employee could take action if a code of practice has not been introduced to them; therefore employers must ensure that a code of practice is set within the organisation.