Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

that the sanction is clearly inappropriate, then it must interfere. 103 The correct
approach of the court was summarised in the following terms by Lord Millett:
The board will afford an appropriate measure of respect to the
judgment in the committee whether the practitioner's failing amount to
serious professional misconduct and on the measures necessary to
maintain professional standards and provide adequate protection to
the public. But the board will not defer to the committee's judgment
more than is warranted by the circumstances. 104
Provisional view
9.131 The right to appeal to a court of full jurisdiction is an important aspect of the
fitness to practise process. It ensures that professionals receive a full
reconsideration of their case based on issues of fact and law, and that the fitness
to practise system as a whole is compliant with the European Convention on
Human Rights. All health care practitioners have consistent arrangements for
appeal. Social workers will also be brought within this system when the functions
of the General Social Care Council are transferred to the Health Professions
Council. We therefore provisionally propose that under the Act all professionals
should have the right of appeal to the High Court in England and Wales, the
Court of Session in Scotland and the High Court in Northern Ireland.
Provisional Proposal 9-35: All professionals should continue to have a right of
appeal against the decision of a Fitness to Practise Panel to the High Court in
England and Wales, the Court of Session in Scotland and the High Court in
Northern Ireland.
103 Salsbury v Law Society [2009] 1 WLR 1286 at [30] by Jackson LJ.
104 Ghosh v General Medical Council [2001] 1 WLR 1915, 1923G.
190