Deferral requests
This page is in Section 3: The recommendation statements - part of the GMC's guidance for responsible officers on making revalidation recommendations.
What is a deferral request?
A deferral request is a request made by you, a responsible officer (RO), for the GMC to provide you with more time in which to submit a recommendation.
A successful deferral request results in a revised submission date for your recommendation that is later than the original submission date.
Deferral requests apply to doctors who are:
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engaged in the systems and processes that support revalidation, but about whom there is incomplete information on which to base a positive recommendation (this will be where a doctor has not been able to gather all of the required supporting information by the time the revalidation submission date falls due)
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participating in an ongoing local HR or disciplinary process, the outcome of which you will need to consider prior to making your recommendation.
A deferral request is not:
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an RO’s request for the GMC to delay making a decision about a doctor’s revalidation after receiving a recommendation
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a route to raising concerns about a doctor’s fitness to practise with the GMC - these should be referred to the GMC via the existing processes for raising concerns, as soon as they arise
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an RO’s request to delay making a recommendation while a doctor is subject to an on-going GMC fitness to practise investigation (in these cases the GMC will postpone a doctor’s revalidation pending the outcome of the investigation).
Deferral requests are appropriate only where a doctor has engaged with the systems and processes that support revalidation.
If you have insufficient information on which to base a positive recommendation and you are confident that the doctor has had sufficient opportunity to engage with these systems and processes, you should consider our criteria for notifications of non-engagement.
What the deferral request statements ask you to confirm
The deferral request statements (pdf) require you to confirm that a doctor has engaged with the systems and processes that support revalidation, and that there are no unaddressed concerns about their fitness to practise.
To submit a deferral request you must specify:
The reason for your request
You must confirm the reason for your deferral request by selecting the appropriate reason. In GMC Connect this will require you to select one option from the drop down menu.
Insufficient information
You are able to submit a deferral request where the information collected by a doctor for revalidation is incomplete, despite the doctor’s engagement with the systems and processes that support revalidation.
You must agree that you have identified the outstanding supporting information, and that you will be able to make an informed recommendation once this information has been collected.
You will not be asked to specify the circumstances that explain why a doctor has not been able to collect the required supporting information. Examples of these circumstances are given in Section 4.
The doctor is subject to an on-going process
You can submit a deferral request where you need to take account of the outcome of an ongoing local process in which a doctor is participating, in order to make your recommendation.
You must agree that you will consider the outcome of this process in your recommendation, and that you will be able to make an informed recommendation once the process concludes.
You will not be asked to specify the category of ongoing process in which the doctor is participating. Examples of these are given in Section 4.
The length of your deferral
To submit a deferral request you must specify the length of time for which you wish to defer making a recommendation. In GMC Connect this will require you to input a date within twelve months of the date on which your request is submitted.
Submitting a deferral request via GMC Connect
To submit a deferral request via GMC Connect you will need to select a reason for your request by choosing the relevant option from a drop down menu.
In GMC Connect the two available reasons appear as short phrases. These are summaries of the relevant bullet points within the deferral request statements. They also appear on the GMC Connect page on which you will complete and submit your deferral request.
The abbreviated statements in GMC Connect do not change the GMC’s expectations of what underpins your deferral request. When submitting a deferral request via GMC Connect you will be asked to confirm that you understand and agree with the criteria for deferral requests.
The deferral request statements
The recommendation statements (pdf) describe what you, as an RO, must agree to when you submit a recommendation. There is one set of recommendation statements for each of the three recommendation categories.