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

The Guidance deals with the circumstances in which suspension of a doctor’s registration is appropriate, stating that:

“91.

Suspension has a deterrent effect and can be used to send out a signal to the doctor, the profession and public about what is regarded as behaviour unbefitting a registered doctor. Suspension from the medical register also has a punitive effect, in that it prevents the doctor from practising (and therefore from earning a living as a doctor) during the suspension, although this is not its intention.

92.

Suspension will be an appropriate response to misconduct that is so serious that action must be taken to protect members of the public and maintain public confidence in the profession. A period of suspension will be appropriate for conduct that is serious but falls short of being fundamentally incompatible with continued registration (ie for which erasure is more likely to be the appropriate sanction because the tribunal considers that the doctor should not practise again either for public safety reasons or to protect the reputation of the profession)…

97.

Some or all of the following factors being present (this list is not exhaustive) would indicate suspension may be appropriate.

…

e.

No evidence that demonstrates remediation is unlikely to be successful, eg because of previous unsuccessful attempts or a doctor’s unwillingness to engage.

f.

No evidence of repetition of similar behaviour since the incident.

g.

The tribunal is satisfied the doctor has insight and does not pose a significant risk of repeating behaviour” (emphasis added).