Voluntary Removal and GDC Restoration – Guidance for Dentists

The General Dental Council (GDC) recently released updated voluntary erasure guidance, where dentists are under investigation for fitness to practise concerns seek to voluntarily remove themselves from the register.  We look at the new guidance and what this means for registered dentists.

Voluntary Erasure

Dentists can ask to be removed from the GDC register at any time  – known as voluntary erasure.  Whilst voluntary erasure is normally a simple administrative process, this is not the case where dentists are the subject of a fitness to practise investigation because it is not always a permanent solution (because dentists can apply for restoration) and may not always align with the public interest.

The GDC guidance states that:

“Applications for voluntary removal are likely to be granted where allegations are at the lower level of seriousness, and the dental professional involved confirms that they want to leave the register permanently. However, in instances of serious public protection concerns, investigations are generally concluded before voluntary removal is granted, unless exceptional circumstances apply.”

Where a dentist is under fitness to practise investigation, voluntary erasure is usually not considered to be in the public interest because it is not a legitimate way for a registrant to avoid a fitness to practise investigation.

Relevant Factors

When a voluntary erasure application is submitted while a dentist is subject to ongoing fitness to practise proceedings, the guidance outlines a range of factors that the GDC will consider in reaching a decision:

• Public protection
• Public confidence in the profession
• The promotion and maintenance of proper professional standards
• The likelihood of the intention to apply for restoration to the Register in future
• The registrant’s position in relation to allegations, and circumstances more broadly
• The registrant’s health
• Any exceptional circumstances
• What stage the fitness to practise proceedings have reached when the application is made

Notwithstanding the above, dentists should note that certain allegations are deemed sufficiently serious that, if substantiated “public confidence in the profession would be seriously undermined if the allegations were not fully investigated and, where appropriate, subjected to public scrutiny at hearing”.

The types of allegations include, but are not limited to:

• where there is an ongoing police investigation or conviction for a serious criminal offence or offences
• sexual assault and/or misconduct
• harassment on the grounds of any protected characteristic
• discriminatory behaviour on the grounds of any protected characteristic
• violence
• dishonesty
• lack of integrity
• gross negligence recklessness risking serious harm to patients.

Exceptional circumstances

The GDC makes clear in its guidance that “the dental professional’s interests are unlikely to outweigh the public interest, unless there are exceptional circumstances”.

The guidance gives the following explanation of what the GDC might consider constituting “exceptional circumstances”:

Such circumstances include where medical evidence has been provided which demonstrates that the individual is, and will likely be, unfit to participate in fitness to practise proceedings. That evidence should be from a medical practitioner with familiarity with the registrant’s medical condition, must clearly demonstrate the individual’s condition, and explain how and why that condition prevents – and will likely continue to prevent – their participation in proceedings. Such circumstance may include, but is not limited to, where the registrant does not have capacity to understand the allegations or to seek and/or act on legal advice, or where the registrant is suffering from a terminal or serious illness and there is no prospect they will recover sufficiently to practise again. Exceptional circumstances may also include where there is evidence that the process carries with it a risk of suicide or serious self-harm on the part of the dental professional concerned.