An interim orders tribunal can restrict your practice before anyone has decided whether the allegations against you are true. The GMC can refer you at any stage of an investigation, and the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hears the case. The hearing can take place at any point in a case. Its decision then settles whether you keep working, and on what terms, while the investigation runs its course.

The legal test

The power comes from section 41A of the Medical Act 1983. A tribunal may suspend your registration, or make it conditional on requirements it specifies. It may do so where it is satisfied that this is necessary for the protection of members of the public, is otherwise in the public interest, or is in your own interests. An order can last up to 18 months. The tribunal must review it within six months and then at intervals of no more than six months. You can also ask for an earlier review once three months have passed since the last one. If the GMC needs the order to last longer, it must apply to the court, which can extend it by up to 12 months at a time. The court also has power to end a suspension or to revoke or vary conditions.

The MPTS guidance for interim orders tribunals, in force since 24 November 2025, explains each limb. Protection of the public points to a real and immediate risk to patient safety. That risk most often arises from concerns about behaviour, performance or the impact of a health condition. The public interest covers public confidence in the profession and professional standards. The guidance says an order may be needed on that basis alone, even with no immediate risk to patients. One example is where a doctor faces a serious criminal charge. An order in your own interests is less common, and the guidance gives the example of a doctor who lacks insight into the effect of a health condition.

What the tribunal does not do

The tribunal does not make findings of fact or resolve disputes of fact. Nor does it decide whether your fitness to practise is impaired. Its task is to assess risk on the information before it. The guidance tells it to consider three things: the seriousness of the concern, the likelihood of repetition and the weight of the information available. Weight is where you have room to work. An allegation may rest on a single uncorroborated account, or records made at the time may contradict it. Either way it carries less weight than one supported by documents. You are also entitled to put documentary evidence of your own before the tribunal.

The tribunal cannot accept undertakings from you. The guidance says it has no power to accept them and that they would in any event be unenforceable. What it can do is impose conditions instead of a suspension. It must also weigh the risk it identifies against the adverse consequences an order will have on you. That balancing exercise is the centre of most hearings.

How often tribunals suspend

The GMC's 2025 statistical report records 350 interim orders tribunal outcomes for doctors in 2025. The tribunal suspended the doctor in 55 cases, imposed conditions in 229 and made no order in 66. Put another way, tribunals suspended about one doctor in six. About two in three continued to practise under conditions, and nearly one in five left with no restriction at all. The number of suspensions has risen from 40 in 2020, but the GMC reports that the proportion of cases resulting in suspension remained broadly stable in 2025.

Conditions are the most common result, and that should shape your preparation. In many cases the realistic argument is less about whether there will be an order than about what the order will say.

Preparing for the hearing

Under rule 26 of the General Medical Council (Fitness to Practise) Rules 2004, the notice of hearing must set out briefly why the GMC says an order is needed. The GMC must also send you the written evidence it holds that is relevant to that question. Read both closely, because the tribunal will judge risk on that material and on whatever you add.

Your evidence should answer the risk the GMC identifies. Where the concern is clinical, the most useful document you can produce is often a statement from your responsible officer or clinical director. It should cover your current practice, any local restrictions already in place and the supervision available to you. Where local measures are already managing the risk, say so and prove it. Where the concern is about your health, evidence that you are under treatment and following advice goes directly to the likelihood of repetition.

Draft the conditions under which you would be able to work. The tribunal has to find a proportionate order. A set of workable conditions, with an employer ready to supervise them, gives it a practical alternative to suspension. Before the hearing, confirm with your employer that it can support what you propose, because conditions you are unable to meet do you no good.

Expect a short hearing. Rule 27 allows oral evidence only where the tribunal considers it desirable, so most hearings proceed on documents and submissions. Interim orders tribunals sit in private, though you can ask for a public hearing.

After the hearing

An interim order is not a finding against you. Comply fully with every condition it imposes. Use the months before the first review to build the evidence the next tribunal will want to see. That includes a record of compliance, reports from your supervisor and any remediation you have started. A review tribunal looks again at whether an order remains necessary and, if it does, what order is proportionate. It takes account of new information, so each review is a fresh opportunity to argue for less restriction.

If you are a nurse, dentist, pharmacist or other healthcare professional

The other regulators use the same test and the same 18 month ceiling. The NMC, GDC, GPhC and GOC committees may suspend you or impose conditions for up to 18 months on the same grounds, reviewing the order within six months and then within each further six months. An HCPC panel reviews after six months and then every three months. The GOsC and GCC Investigating Committees may suspend only where necessary to protect the public and for no more than two months, and an interim suspension order by their conduct committees has no fixed period and no review. See our pages for each profession.

Eloquia acts for doctors at interim orders tribunals and every other stage of a GMC case, with a specialist barrister from the outset. The fixed fee for each hearing includes counsel's work and is stated plus VAT.

Sources

  1. Medical Act 1983, section 41A (legislation.gov.uk)
  2. MPTS, Guidance for tribunals: interim orders tribunal hearings, general introduction
  3. MPTS, Guidance for tribunals: the test for imposing an interim order
  4. MPTS, Guidance for tribunals: interim orders, step 1a, assess the risk arising from the information referred
  5. MPTS, Guidance for tribunals: interim orders, step 1b, whether it is necessary to restrict the doctor's registration
  6. MPTS, How a hearing works for doctors: interim orders tribunals
  7. General Medical Council, Concerns about fitness to practise: Annual statistical report 2025 (published 30 July 2026)
  8. The General Medical Council (Fitness to Practise) Rules Order of Council 2004, SI 2004/2608, Schedule (legislation.gov.uk, text as made)
  9. Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, Guidance for MPTS tribunals (published 30 September 2025, in effect from 24 November 2025)
  10. Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001, article 31 (interim orders)
  11. Dentists Act 1984, section 32 (interim orders)
  12. Pharmacy Order 2010, article 56 (interim orders)
  13. Health Professions Order 2001, article 31 (interim orders)
  14. Opticians Act 1989, section 13L (interim orders)
  15. Osteopaths Act 1993, section 24 (interim suspension orders)
  16. Chiropractors Act 1994, section 24 (interim suspension orders)
  17. GOsC: Guidance for Fitness to Practise Committees on imposing Interim Suspension Orders, November 2023