What happens next?

Who makes rule 12 decisions?

Rule 12 decisions are made by assistant registrars, who are members of GMC staff with delegated authority from the registrar (the Chief Executive of the GMC). The assistant registrar who makes the rule 12 decision will not be the same person that made the original decision. 

Initial consideration

An assistant registrar will consider the request to see if there is a potential significant error (a ‘material flaw’) in the original decision and/or any new information that may have changed the decision. They will then decide if it is in the public interest to review the decision. 

If more than two years have passed since the original decision was made, they will consider whether there are exceptional circumstances that would allow the review to proceed. 

Assistant registrars will refer to fitness to practice decision makers guidance when considering these requests. 

Review

If, based on the information available to us, we decide that there are grounds for a review, we will seek comments from the requestor and the doctor. We won’t normally carry out any further investigation at this stage. 

If we decide there are no grounds for review, we will tell you why and the case will be closed. 

Reopen

After a review decision has been made, we will review any comments received and consider the decision again.

If we decide that we are unable to reopen the case, we will tell you why and the case will be closed.

If we decide that further investigation is needed, we will reopen the case and refer it to our investigations team. They will contact you to explain what will happen next.

Reopening a case does not mean that regulatory action will be taken. The purpose of the investigation is to gather and assess further information. After considering all the available evidence, we may still decide to close the case with no further action.