Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) breaches of current standards and guidelines on electroconvulsive therapy the Care Quality Commission has identified in each of the last 10 years and (b) practitioners of electroconvulsive therapy have had their license to practice (i) restricted or (ii) removed in each of the last 10 years.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) do not hold data centrally on the number of breaches related to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The CQC’s records also do not separately identify records of breaches or other regulatory action related to ECT specifically. The General Medical Council (GMC) is the regulator of all medical doctors practising in the United Kingdom (UK). Its role is to set and enforce the standards all doctors must adhere to and it is responsible for ensuring that medical practitioners have the necessary skills and knowledge to join the UK medical register.

The GMC does not have data readily available on practitioners of ECT who have had their licence to practise restricted or removed.