Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

language is not English. 7 However, almost all the regulators provide a helpline
where staff can assist in completing the form or making any other special
arrangements. Most specify that allegations can be sent through a variety of
routes, including post, fax and email. The General Optical Council is unique in
specifying that the form must be posted.
8.9 Practice also varies on the amount of information a complainant has to supply.
Most regulators require the name and contact details of the subject of the
allegation, while the Nursing and Midwifery Council asks for the name of the
practitioner if possible or the shift they were working, or a physical description. 8
Others require the written agreement of the complainant to contact the
practitioner and reveal the complainant’s identity. 9 This practice is intended to
ensure that the complainant is aware that their identity may need to be disclosed
to the practitioner in question. 10
8.10 Some regulators set a time limit for bringing an allegation against a registrant. For
example, at the General Medical Council, an allegation cannot proceed if more
than five years have elapsed since the most recent events giving rise to the
allegation. The exception is if “it is in the public interest, in the exceptional
circumstances of the case, for it to proceed”. 11
Provisional view
8.11 An allegation is a legal concept designed to be the gateway for the fitness to
practise process. In effect, any complaint or information which falls within the
definition of an allegation will trigger an investigation. We are concerned that this
approach may be overly rigid and formulaic. First, it suggests that most
allegations are best dealt with through formal fitness to practise procedures.
However, formal proceedings are not always necessary and this approach fails to
recognise the need to adopt a proportionate approach to managing risk. For
example, the system often requires a complaint about a single incident of
treatment to be managed in the same way as disclosure of a registrant’s
conviction for murder or other criminal offences. Second, this approach fails to
give the regulators sufficient flexibility to deal with matters which fall short of the
formal definition of an allegation but which, for example, still concern standards of
professional conduct or performance that represent a risk to the public. Finally,
some matters which fall within the remit of an allegation may be better dealt with
7
See, for example, Public Services Ombudsmen (2010) Law Commission Consultation
Paper No 196, paras 4.86 to 4.91.
8
See http://www.nmc-uk.org/Documents/FtP_Information/NMC_referral_form.doc (last
visited 15 February 2012).
9 See, for example, http://www.gdcuk.org/Newsandpublications/Publications/Publications/HowtoReportEnglishfinal[1].pdf
(last
visited 15 February 2012).
10 The right of the practitioner to be made aware of, and comment on, an allegation is
guaranteed under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, see Ruiz-
Mateos v Spain (1993) 16 EHRR 505 at [63].
11
General Medical Council (Fitness to Practise) Rules Order of Council 2004, SI 2004 No
2608, r 4(5).
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