Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

Professions Adjudicator to take over adjudication of fitness to practise hearings in
relation to General Medical Council and General Optical Council cases, subject to
provision for review by the higher courts on issues of fact and law. That Act also
made provision to enable its jurisdiction to be extended to other regulators by
means of an order under section 60 of the Health Act 1999.
9.13 The Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator became a legal entity in January
2010 but did not commence any adjudication functions. Following the General
Election, the Coalition Government reviewed the case for an independent
adjudicator. The Department of Health consulted on the matter, indicating that its
preferred option was to abolish the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator
and take steps to enhance the General Medical Council’s processes. The
rationale for this was that such steps would deliver substantially the same
benefits that an independent adjudicator would have delivered, but in a more cost
effective manner. Following consultation, the Government confirmed that it would
proceed with its preferred option and repeal the relevant statutory provisions
through the Health and Social Care Bill 2011.
9.14 The effect of the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator’s abolition is that
the regulators will continue to carry out adjudication at the first instance in fitness
to practise hearings, subject to existing provisions in their governing legislation
for review by the higher courts on issues of both fact and law.
General Medical Council Reforms
9.15 In 2011 the General Medical Council published proposals for the establishment of
the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service to assume responsibility for
adjudication, including hearing cases that are currently heard by interim orders
panels and fitness to practise panels. It is stated that the Tribunal Service would
be operationally separate from the rest of the General Medical Council and would
be responsible for the appointment and removal of tribunal members and case
managers, the appointment of special advisers, and the appointment, training
and assessment of legal advisers. The Council have proposed a right of appeal
against tribunal decisions where it is desirable for the protection of the public. The
Tribunal Service would be required to report directly to Parliament on an annual
basis. 11 It is expected that the Tribunal Service will be set up in shadow form by
the summer of 2012 pending the introduction of new legislation in 2013. 12
Provisional view
9.16 In our view, Article 6 does not require a separate fitness to practise adjudicator.
The test is whether sufficient guarantees exist to exclude any legitimate doubt of
impartiality, applying an objective standard. 13 This test enables the fitness to
11 General Medical Council, Reform of the Fitness to Practise Procedures at the GMC: The
Future of Adjudication and the Establishment of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service:
A Paper For Consultation (2011).
12 General Medical Council, Summary of responses to our Consultation: The Future of
Adjudication and the Establishment of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (2011),
para 49.
13 Findlay v UK (1997) 24 EHRR 221, 245.
161