Information about ‘Rule 12’

What is ‘Rule 12’? 

If you’ve already raised a concern about a doctor’s fitness to practise but you don’t think we’ve reached the right decision or you have new information to provide, you can ask us to review our decision under our internal review process (‘Rule 12’).

What can we review? 

We can review the following decisions under Rule 12 of our Fitness to Practise Rules.

• Where we have decided not to investigate the concerns you raised.
• Where we have taken no action at the end of an investigation.
• Where we closed an investigation by issuing advice, agreeing undertakings or issuing a warning to the doctor.

Find out about the actions we can take on a doctor's registration.

Please note, we cannot review decisions relating to individuals who are not doctors (e.g. physician associates (PAs), anaesthesia associates (AAs), or doctors no longer on our register) under this process. If the decision relates to a PA or AA, you can find out more about the investigation process or contact feedback@gmc-uk.org.  

When will we review a decision?

We can only review a decision under Rule 12 if:

• the decision may be materially flawed, or there’s new information which might have led to a different decision,
• a review is necessary for the protection of the public, the prevention of injustice to the practitioner or necessary in the public interest, and
• the decision was taken less than two years previously (unless the circumstances are exceptional).

Who can ask for a review? 

Anyone with an interest in the decision can ask for a review – such as the doctor complained about or the person who made the complaint. 

Please note, this review is only for concerns that the GMC has already been made aware of. If you wish to raise a new concern about a registered doctor, you can report a new concern.

You can read more about our process in our Rule 12 FAQs document. We also have our FAQs document available in Welsh.