AC-2025-CDF-000062 - [2025] EWHC 2619 (Admin)

The Guidance makes plain that a tribunal should have regard to the principle of proportionality (para 20). In order to ensure that the sanction is proportionate, a tribunal should consider the sanctions available, starting with the least restrictive. It should weigh the interests of the public against those of the doctor (para 20). However, once the tribunal has determined that a certain sanction is necessary to protect the public (and is the minimum required to do so), that sanction must be imposed, even where this may lead to difficulties for a doctor. This approach flows from the legal duty to protect the public (para 21).

The Guidance states at para 17:

“Although the tribunal should make sure the sanction it imposes is appropriate and proportionate, the reputation of the profession as a whole is more important than the interests of any individual doctor.”