Blog
Kingsley Napley’s Medical Negligence Team ‘walks together’ with the Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity
Sharon Burkill
11 August 2014
Norton v Bar Standards Board [2014] EWHC 2681
High Court holds that tribunal misdirected itself when deciding to proceeding in the absence of the registrant, and remit the case for rehearing
Judgement date: 31 July 2014
11 August 2014
Ashraf v General Dental Council [2014] EWHC 2618 (Admin)
Ashraf v General Dental Council [2014] EWHC 2618 (Admin)
Court considers again the fairness or otherwise of regulatory proceedings following a criminal acquittal.
Judgement date: 29 July 2014
Dr Ashraf appealed the decision of a Professional Conduct Committee (the Committee) of the General Dental Council (GDC) that his fitness to practise was impaired by virtue of inappropriate and dishonest claims made by him to the NHS, and that his name should be erased from the register.
Dr Ashraf had, prior to the hearing before the Committee, been prosecuted on an indictment containing three counts of fraud and theft in relation to the same NHS claims and had been acquitted by a jury on all counts. Counsel on behalf of Dr Ashraf made an unsuccessful application to stay the disciplinary proceedings as an abuse of process in the month before the hearing. It is the failure of the Committee to stay the proceedings that is the thrust of the present case, although there were further grounds of appeal regarding evidential findings of the Panel and their decisions on impairment and erasure.
11 August 2014
GMC Consultation on Draft Order – taking up the torch of the Law Commission reforms in the absence of government action?
On 31 July 2014 the Department of Health (DoH) published their consultation paper, The General Medical Council and Professional Standards Authority: Proposed changes to modernise and reform the adjudication of fitness to practise cases , the aim of which is to ‘strengthen and modernise the GMC’s adjudication systems’. Annexed to the consultation document, which poses various questions to those potentially affected by the changes, inviting comment, is the draft Order; The General Medical Council (Fitness to Practise etc.) and the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (Referrals to Court) Order 2014 The Order amends the Medical Act 1983 and National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002 to implement the key reforms.
The reforms are said to be designed to increase the separation between the investigation of fitness to practise cases and adjudications, strengthen and modernise the GMC powers and implement changes to the power of the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) to refer cases to higher courts.
7 August 2014
Professionals beware: your conduct outside of the office could be under regulatory scrutiny
If asked to answer truthfully, I am sure many professionals would, at some point, and to varying degrees, have acted in a way which was less than entirely honest. For most, this would have been an isolated event, which has long been put out of their minds. Few would have thought through the range of consequences of such an act; however, as a professional, acting dishonestly, or with a lack of integrity, could have wide-reaching consequences.
7 July 2014
Press Round-Up: Regulatory and Professional Discipline – July 2014
Recent news relating to Bar Standards Board (BSB), Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), General Medical Council (GMC), General Dental Council (GDC), Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).