General Pharmaceutical Council Fitness to Practice Committee

The Fitness to Practise Committee makes decisions in cases where a registrant’s fitness to practise may be impaired, for reasons concerning their conduct, professional performance or health.

It is required to consider all cases referred to it and must determine whether or not the fitness to practise of the person in respect of whom the allegation is made is impaired.

The procedure for hearings before the Committee is set out in Part 6 of the General Pharmaceutical Council Fitness to Practise Rules Order of Council 2010.

The Committee must hold hearings in public except where the hearing relates to a health allegation, or an interim order hearing, which must be held in private unless the Committee is satisfied that the public interest in holding a public hearing outweighs the interest of the registrant concerned or the third party in maintaining their privacy (Rule 39).

The Committee may receive any evidence (including oral evidence) subject only to the requirements of relevance and fairness (Rule 24). The Committee may take a breach of the standards of conduct, ethics and performance into account when deciding whether or not the registrant’s fitness to practise is impaired (Rule 24(11)). The Committee uses the civil standard of proof (Rule 42).

Before the hearing can be held and as soon as practicable after the date on which the registrant is given notice of the referral to the Fitness to Practise Committee, the Council must serve on the person concerned the documents as set out in rule 14(1). These are:

• finalised particulars of the allegation, sufficiently particularised to enable them to understand the allegation;
• any statements of evidence, expert reports or other documents relied upon by the Council in support of its case, not previously served upon the person concerned;
• any evidence or documents that the Council has in its possession (other than documents for which privilege is claimed) which, whilst not relied upon by the Council, may assist the person concerned in the preparation of their defence;
• a list of witnesses whose evidence is (or whose oral evidence will be) relied upon by the Council in support of its case;
• a copy of the listing questionnaire duly completed by the Council; and
• any time estimate for the duration of the Council’s case.

Then, as soon as is reasonably practicable after the date of service of the documents set out in rule 14(1) the person concerned must serve on the committee secretary an agreed time estimate for the duration of the hearing and a completed listing questionnaire.

If the parties are unable to agree a time estimate for the duration of the hearing, or if there are other procedural issues involved, they must request case management directions. The request must state why the party is seeking a case management meeting, state what directions are sought for the management of the case and state whether the person making the request seeks the participation of the parties at the meeting or whether the issues can be dealt with without oral representations. The Committee secretary then sends a copy of the request, together with any other material considered relevant, to the chair. The chair must agree to the request unless he determines it is unnecessary or the request is an abuse of process (rules 19, 20 and 21). Case management meetings may be conducted by video link, teleconference or such other method as is agreed by the parties or, where the parties fail to agree, decided by the chair, who must act independently of the parties and may give directions to secure the just, expeditious and effective running of the proceedings before the Committee. Case management meetings are to be held in private.

Case Management directions can include, but are not limited to:

• providing that either or both parties must comply with the provisions of rule 14 (disclosure provisions), 15 (inspection of documents) or 18 (hearing bundles) within such period as may be specified in the direction;
• requiring the parties to obtain, and to disclose within a specified period, evidence and expert reports;
• requiring each party to provide an estimate of the length of the hearing and any dates on which they or any witnesses would not be able to attend the hearing;
• where facts are not in dispute or the allegation is admitted, requiring the parties to produce a statement of agreed facts;
• requiring the parties to state whether or not the health of the person concerned will be raised as an issue in the proceedings, and if so, whether, in their view, medical reports should be obtained;
• requiring a party to call the author of any expert report at the hearing;
• where agreed between the parties, directing that the witness statement of a witness is to stand as the evidence-in-chief of that witness;
• directing that special measures be put in place at the hearing for a vulnerable witness, including measures aimed at protecting the witness’s identity;
• requiring chronologies and additional skeleton arguments to be produced by the parties;
• directing that a further case management meeting should be held; and
• obtaining rulings from the Committee for the purpose of resolving questions of law or admissibility of evidence.

A Notice of Hearing must be served on the registrant, not less than 28 days in advance of the hearing, unless the registrant agrees otherwise (rule 16) and, no less than twenty-four hours before the hearing, the parties are required to exchange a schedule of costs and to serve a copy of their schedules on the Committee Secretariat (rule 46(1)).

If the Fitness to Practise Committee determines that the fitness to practise of the person concerned is impaired, it may:

1. give a warning to the person concerned in connection with any matter arising out of, or related to, the allegation and give a direction that details of the warning be recorded in the Register;
2. give advice to any other person or other body involved in the investigation of the allegation on any issue arising out of, or related to, the allegation;
3. give a direction that the entry in the Register of the person concerned be removed;
4. give a direction that the entry in the Register of the person concerned be suspended, for such period not exceeding 12 months as may be specified in the direction; or
5. give a direction that the entry in the Register of the person concerned be conditional upon that person complying, during such period not exceeding 3 years as may be specified in the direction, with such requirements specified in the direction as the Committee thinks fit to impose for the protection of the public or otherwise in the public interest or in the interests of the person concerned.

The Registrar must notify the registrant of any decision made by the Committee, together with the reasons for that decision and any right of appeal under article 58 (Article 54(8)). In practice, this will be done by the Committee Secretariat. Where possible the decision will be sent the next working day after the decision is made.