This referral policy and parameters of care document was commissioned by the Council of the British Society of Periodontology to provide guidance for practitioners, given the changing environment of primary and secondary care dentistry in the UK. These changes included the provision of the so-called 'high street' specialists in various mono-specialties and engendered a new paradigm of openness and information giving from the profession outwards. This was in turn necessitated by both dento-legal requirements and an increasing demand from the public for the provision of more advanced periodontal care. The promotion of periodontal therapy is both public and practitioner based, and by promoting periodontology to the general practitioner there is an inevitable knock-on effect to the patient base. Thus, in October 2000, these guidelines for referring from primary to secondary care were published so that GDPs could be given some indications of good referral practice, based upon the well-known tenets of the Basic Periodontal Examination (BPE). In addition, a number of succinct and relevant parameters of care were proposed, highlighting the need for the practitioner to not only examine the periodontium but also to make a diagnosis and effect a treatment plan and defined therapeutic goals using evidence based procedures.