GCC fitness to practise: defence for chiropractors

The concern and the investigation

Section 20(1) of the Act lists four grounds of allegation. They are unacceptable professional conduct, professional incompetence and a conviction in the UK for a criminal offence. The fourth is a physical or mental condition that seriously impairs your ability to practise. The GCC's fitness to practise team investigates a written concern and shares the details with you. It gives you the opportunity to respond, and it shares your response with the person who raised the concern.

Notice and your observations

Section 20(9) requires the Investigating Committee to notify you of the allegation. It must invite your observations within 28 days of the date the notice goes out. Before it decides, it must also take reasonable steps to obtain as much information as possible.

The Investigating Committee

The committee meets in private, and chiropractors and lay members sit on it. In the words of section 20(9), it decides whether in its opinion there is a case to answer. Its decision making guidance of January 2023 says it is not a fact finding committee. It can adjourn for further enquiries. Where it finds a case to answer, it refers the allegation to the Professional Conduct Committee, or to the Health Committee for a health allegation. Or it can find no case to answer and close the case. For a conviction, it may find no case to answer where the offence has no material relevance to your fitness to practise.

Interim suspension orders

The Investigating Committee may order your suspension while it investigates. It may do so only where it is satisfied that this is necessary to protect members of the public. GCC guidance says it has no power to do so on any other basis, such as the wider public interest. The order must specify a period of no more than two months, and the committee may make only one on the same allegation. Under section 24, the Professional Conduct Committee or Health Committee may suspend you on the same test. It may do this before it decides the allegation or when it imposes suspension or removal. Such an order lasts until the committee decides the case or the appeal period ends. You may appeal an interim suspension order to the High Court within 28 days of the order, and the court's decision is final.

The Professional Conduct Committee

Hearings take place by video. They are open to the public unless the committee considers confidential or intimate matters, and the GCC publishes the allegations and notice of the hearing 28 days beforehand. The committee has a chair, a chiropractor and a lay member. If it finds the allegation well founded, section 22 requires one of four steps. One is admonishment. Another is a conditions of practice order specifying a period, a test of competence or both. A suspension order and removal from the register make up the other two. The periods in a conditions of practice order or suspension order, and any extension, may not exceed three years. For its part, the Health Committee may impose conditions or suspend.

The GCC's Guidance on Sanctions of April 2018 governs the sanction stage. Between 29 June and 16 August 2026, the GCC consulted on replacement guidance. It said it would publish its response in October 2026, so check which version applies to your hearing.

Appeal

Section 31 gives 28 days to appeal to the High Court in England and Wales. The period begins with the date of service on you of notification of the decision. Until that period ends or the court decides any appeal, the decision has no effect. The exception is where the committee also made an interim suspension order. Appeals run through a regulated law firm we work with, and we stay involved.