Glossary of terms in GMC, police and NHS cases

Two GMC decision makers, one medical and one lay, who decide the outcome at the end of an investigation. Applying the realistic prospect test, they can close the case, give advice, issue a warning, agree undertakings with you or refer you to a medical practitioners tribunal. The NMC and the GDC also use case examiners, each with its own test.

Under MHPS, the person the medical director appoints to gather the facts of a concern and report on them. The investigator does not decide what action to take or whether you should be excluded. Nor may the investigator sit on any later disciplinary or appeal panel. The framework expects the work to be complete within four weeks of appointment.

Under MHPS, the person who receives the case investigator's report and decides what happens next. The options run from no further action to a conduct or capability panel, exclusion or a referral to the GMC or GDC. The medical director acts as case manager for clinical directors and consultants and can delegate the role in other cases.

A formal police disposal that the GMC treats as an admission of the offence. Paragraph 99 of Good medical practice requires you to tell the GMC without delay if you accept one. The GMC's guidance for case examiners sets a presumption of referral to a tribunal for cautions. Take advice before you accept a caution at the police station.

The scheme under which the police may pass information about a person to an employer or regulator where there is a pressing social need to protect the public. It replaced the Notifiable Occupations Scheme in 2015. The main trigger for considering a disclosure is arrest, or interview as a suspect, for a recordable offence.

Requirements that a tribunal attaches to your registration so that you can keep practising with restrictions. An interim orders tribunal or a medical practitioners tribunal can impose them. In 2025 interim orders tribunals imposed conditions in 229 of 350 cases, the most common result. Propose workable conditions your employer can support before the hearing.

An NMC route to resolve a case by agreement. You admit the factual allegations and agree with the NMC on impairment and on the sanction. A panel then considers the provisional agreement, usually at a meeting, and makes its own decision. It can shorten a case a great deal, but it puts the facts and impairment on the record.

The non-executive director whom the chair of an NHS board designates under MHPS to oversee a case and keep it moving. You and your companion may make representations about an exclusion to the designated board member at any time. You should also copy any written objection to a departure from procedure to that person.

Removal of a doctor's name from the medical register, one of the sanctions a medical practitioners tribunal can impose. In 2025 tribunals erased 48 doctors. A tribunal cannot direct erasure in a health case. You can appeal an erasure to the High Court under section 40. A doctor erased from the register can apply for restoration after five years.

The MHPS term for keeping a doctor or dentist away from work while an NHS employer in England investigates. The framework treats it as a precautionary measure and a last resort, not a disciplinary sanction. No NHS body may exclude you for more than four weeks at a time. An exclusion that nobody reviews lapses at the end of that period.

The term the Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order 2024 uses for conditions, suspension or removal from the register. A GMC case examiner can impose a Final Measure on a physician associate or anaesthesia associate without a hearing. That happens with your agreement. It also happens where you have not sent a reasoned response to a proposal within the prescribed period.

The tribunal that hears appeals, in its Primary Health Lists jurisdiction, against NHS England decisions to impose or vary conditions on a GP's inclusion in the performers list or to remove the GP from it. You must appeal within 28 days beginning with the date of notification. The tribunal may make any decision that was open to NHS England.

Rule 4(5) of the General Medical Council (Fitness to Practise) Rules 2004. No allegation proceeds where more than five years separate the most recent events from the date the concern reached the GMC. The exception is where the Registrar considers it in the public interest in the exceptional circumstances of the case.

A criminal offence for which the police investigate healthcare professionals after a patient's death. CPS guidance requires medical expert evidence in every medical manslaughter case and asks whether the conduct was truly exceptionally bad. Of 135 such cases since 2013 that the CPS had decided by 2018, 128 ended without a prosecution, the Williams review found.

An assessment the GMC may ask you to take if it believes your health may affect your ability to practise safely. One or two GMC appointed examiners see you, and each writes an independent report on diagnosis, fitness to practise and recommendations. Refusing one may affect your registration. The GMC says the reports are confidential and it does not share them with your employer.

An order under section 38 of the Medical Act 1983 by which a medical practitioners tribunal suspends you or imposes conditions at once, rather than after the usual 28 days. It may do so where that is necessary to protect the public, otherwise in the public interest or in your own best interests. The order stays in force while any appeal runs.

The central question in a fitness to practise case: whether your fitness to practise is currently impaired. For doctors, section 35C of the Medical Act 1983 lists six grounds, including misconduct, deficient professional performance, a conviction or caution and adverse health. A tribunal looks forward and asks whether you pose a current and ongoing risk to the public.

Your understanding of what happened and acceptance of how you should have acted differently. Under the MPTS guidance it includes grasping the impact on others, showing empathy, taking steps to remediate and engaging with the GMC. Quality and timing matter, so an early, full acknowledgement carries more weight than a late apology. You keep the right to advance a robust defence.

A person with formal rights at an inquest under section 47 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, including someone who may by any act or omission have caused or contributed to the death. The status brings disclosure of documents and the right to examine witnesses. It is not a finding that you did anything wrong.

An MPTS tribunal that decides whether to restrict your registration while the GMC investigates. Under section 41A of the Medical Act 1983 it can impose conditions or suspend you for up to 18 months. It reviews the order at least every six months. It does not find facts or decide impairment, and an interim order is not a finding against you.

A police interview of a suspect, recorded in full, in which anything you say may be given in evidence. Code C of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 governs it. A voluntary interview is still an interview under caution, with the same rights and safeguards, including free and independent legal advice.

The GPhC committee that decides whether a case the registrar refers ought to go to the Fitness to Practise Committee. Where it decides a hearing is unnecessary, it may give a warning, recorded in the register, or advice. Under article 53 of the Pharmacy Order 2010 you can request a referral to the Fitness to Practise Committee instead.

The test for dishonesty from Ivey v Genting Casinos [2017] UKSC 67, which the MPTS guidance adopts. The tribunal first establishes what you knew or believed about the facts. Then it decides whether your conduct was dishonest by the objective standards of ordinary decent people. Most dishonesty cases turn on the first step, so evidence of your state of mind matters most.

The national framework, Maintaining High Professional Standards in the Modern NHS, that governs how NHS employers in England handle concerns about a doctor's or dentist's conduct, capability or health. Every trust must reflect it in its local policy. Its five parts cover action when a concern arises, exclusion, conduct hearings, capability and health.

The MPTS tribunal of three members, including at least one registrant and one lay member, that hears a GMC case after a referral. It decides the facts, then whether your fitness to practise is impaired, then any sanction. In 2025 there were 160 tribunal outcomes, and 124 ended with a finding of impairment.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, which runs the hearing separately from the GMC once case examiners refer a case. From that point the GMC is a party presenting its case like any other. Its hearing centre is at St James's Buildings, 79 Oxford Street, Manchester, and hearings also run virtually.

The list NHS England keeps of the GPs who provide NHS primary care services in England. Under the National Health Service (Performers Lists) (England) Regulations 2013, NHS England can attach conditions to your inclusion, suspend you or remove you. The procedure runs alongside anything the GMC does, and its deadlines are short.

The NHS Resolution service that now gives the national advice MHPS originally assigned to the National Clinical Assessment Authority. NHS Resolution says employers are expected to seek its advice when considering a formal exclusion. The service describes itself as an advisory body and says the employer keeps responsibility for every decision.

A limited, targeted request for information that the GMC makes when the information at triage is too thin to decide whether to investigate. It often goes to your employer or responsible officer. In 2025 the GMC opened 554 provisional enquiries, of which 467 closed and 56 became investigations. Treat notice of one as a real stage of the process.

A barrister who may take instructions direct from you rather than through a solicitor, under the public access rules in the BSB Handbook. The barrister must hold a full practising certificate and have completed public access training. The Bar Standards Board must also register the barrister as a public access practitioner. If you use one, you cannot usually apply for legal aid.

The test GMC case examiners apply at the end of an investigation. They ask whether there is a realistic prospect of establishing that your fitness to practise is impaired to a degree requiring restrictive action. Restrictive action means undertakings, conditions, suspension or erasure. The prospect must be genuine, not remote or fanciful, and the test has two limbs, the facts and the risk.

Notes you write for your professional development about what you learned from an event. The GMC does not ask for them to investigate a concern, and nine regulators have made the same commitment. They are not subject to legal privilege, so a court may request them. Write about the learning and record the facts of an incident elsewhere.

A coroner's report to prevent future deaths, also called a PFD report, made where an inquest reveals a risk of other deaths and the coroner considers that someone should act. The coroner has no discretion to stay silent when the conditions hold. Anyone who receives one must respond in writing within 56 days. The Chief Coroner may publish the report and the response.

Steps that reduce the risk of the same thing happening again, such as targeted training, supervision, an objective assessment or treatment for a health condition. The MPTS guidance says it depends on insight. Objective evidence, such as certificates and supervisors' reports, is likely to carry more weight than your own statements. Completed steps carry more weight than unfinished ones.

The letter the GMC's Registrar sends under rule 7 of the General Medical Council (Fitness to Practise) Rules 2004. It sets out the allegation, encloses the documents in support and invites your written representations within 28 days of its date. Your response goes to the case examiners and is the main tool you have to move your case towards closure.

A doctor's statutory right under section 40 of the Medical Act 1983 to appeal a tribunal direction for erasure, suspension or conditions. You must bring it within 28 days beginning with the date notification of the decision was served on you. In England and Wales it goes to the High Court and proceeds by way of rehearing. The GMC's own appeals run under section 40A.

The published tests the GPhC applies at the end of an investigation before the registrar refers a case to the Investigating Committee. They ask whether your conduct or performance presents a risk to patient or public safety, undermines confidence in the pharmacy professions, involves a serious or persistent failure to meet the standards or means your integrity can no longer be relied on.

The first stage of the GMC process, in which the GMC decides whether a concern needs a formal investigation. In 2025 the GMC triaged 13,465 concerns and closed 12,146 at this stage. While a concern sits at triage, the GMC does not tell you or your employer about it.

An agreement with the regulator about your future practice that avoids a hearing. GMC case examiners agreed undertakings in 60 cases in 2025. In 13 cases a doctor's refusal to accept them led to a tribunal referral. An interim orders tribunal cannot accept undertakings. In health cases the GMC seeks to resolve matters through health undertakings with a medical supervisor.

An outcome that GMC case examiners, or a tribunal that finds no impairment, can give. A warning is not a sanction and does not restrict your practice. But the GMC publishes it on the register for two years in total, and it discloses expired warnings to current employers indefinitely. A warning is not available where the issue relates solely to your health.