Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has held discussions with the (a) General Medical Council and (b) Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service on the erasure and suspension rates in cases involving allegations of sexual assault and rape.

The General Medical Council (GMC) is independent of the Government, is directly accountable to Parliament, and is responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) is a statutory committee of the GMC. The United Kingdom’s model of healthcare professional regulation is founded on the principle of regulators operating independently from the Government.

At the recent Health and Social Care Committee in January, questions were raised about the GMC’s fitness to practise procedures, particularly in relation to sexual misconduct cases. The GMC stated that sexual misconduct is unacceptable and that it had done a lot of work recently to tighten its guidance and expectations of registrants, setting out a new duty for them and adding a new duty for those who witness such behaviour. The GMC produces annual reports on its Fitness to Practise statistics. The GMC noted that the next report was due in July and committed to thinking about what it can publish in future with the aim to be as transparent as it can.

The Department takes cases concerning sexual assault and rape by healthcare professionals very seriously.

In line with the Ministerial Code, details of all ministerial meetings, including those with the GMC, are published quarterly on GOV.UK at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministerial-gifts-hospitality-overseas-travel-and-meetings