Fitness to Practice Concern Reports
Dear General Medical Council,
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”) to request the following information:
How many fitness to practice concern reports have been denied an investigation by your triage team over the past 5 years where the allegations, if proven, would amount to an impairment of fitness to practise.
I look forward to your response within 20 working days, as stipulated by the Act.
Regards
Mr Wiess
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Thank you
Information access team
General Medical Council
Email: [GMC request email]
Telephone: 0161 923 6365
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Dear Mr Wiess,
Your information request - F19/10265/MM
Thank you for your email dated 9 July, in which you ask for the number of
fitness to practice concern reports have been denied an investigation by
the triage team over the past 5 years where the allegations, if proven,
would amount to an impairment of fitness to practise.
How we will consider your request
You’ve asked that we consider your request under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA). The FOIA gives us 20 working days to respond,
but we’ll come back to you as soon as we can.
Who to contact
Matt McCoig-Lees will be handling your request. If you have any questions
you can call him on 0161 923 6579 or email him at
[1][email address].
Yours sincerely
Lauren Barrowcliffe
Information Access Team Assistant
[2][email address]
0161 240 8356
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW
Dear Mr Wiess
I write further to previous correspondence with a substantive response
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
We are required by our legislation to investigate any complaint made to us
about a registered doctor. The legislation provides an exception where the
allegation relates to events which took place more than five years ago
unless it is in the public interest to investigate.
We have reviewed our data on cases we decided not to investigate and we
are not able to state how many of these cases contained allegations that,
if proven, would amount to an impairment of fitness to practise, without
conducting a manual review of each case.
I can’t answer the question you have asked. This is because of the amount
of data you’ve asked for and the work that would be involved. Under the
FOIA there’s an exemption for requests where it would cost the public
authority more than £450 to process - equivalent to two and half days’
work.
Please find a table below which indicates the number of triage decisions
in the last 5 years, split by year, that have been closed with a closure
reason of ‘5 year rule’.
Outcome Closure Reason 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 # Triages
Closed 5-year rule * 112 116 72 57 97 454
* The 5 year rule is based on s. 35CC(5) of the Medical Act 1983 which
says:
‘No allegation shall proceed further if, at the time it is first made or
first comes to the attention of the General Council, more than five years
have elapsed since the most recent events giving rise to the allegation,
unless the Registrar considers that it is in the public interest for it to
proceed.’
Even if it only took five minutes to check each of the 454 decisions,
based on an hourly rate of £25 per hour (which is set by the Freedom of
Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004) this would cost
us over £900. Your request would therefore cost us in excess of the
‘appropriate limit’ to process.
If you have any comments on how I have handled your request, please email
[1][email address].
Kind Regards
Matt
Matthew McCoig-Lees
Information Access Officer
Information Access Team
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW
Email: [2][email address]
Website: [3]www.gmc-uk.org
Tel: 0161 923 6579
From: FOI
Sent: 09 July 2019 14:33
To: '[FOI #587962 email]'
<[FOI #587962 email]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Fitness to Practice Concern
Reports
Dear Mr Wiess,
Your information request - F19/10265/MM
Thank you for your email dated 9 July, in which you ask for the number of
fitness to practice concern reports have been denied an investigation by
the triage team over the past 5 years where the allegations, if proven,
would amount to an impairment of fitness to practise.
How we will consider your request
You’ve asked that we consider your request under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA). The FOIA gives us 20 working days to respond,
but we’ll come back to you as soon as we can.
Who to contact
Matt McCoig-Lees will be handling your request. If you have any questions
you can call him on 0161 923 6579 or email him at
[4][email address].
Yours sincerely
Lauren Barrowcliffe
Information Access Team Assistant
[5][email address]
0161 240 8356
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW
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