Fitness to Practise (FTP)

For doctors, section 35C of the Medical Act 1983 sets out the framework: where an allegation is made that a registered doctor's fitness to practise is impaired, the Investigation Committee investigates and decides whether the allegation should be considered by a Medical Practitioners Tribunal. The Act specifies that "a person's fitness to practise shall be regarded as 'impaired' for the purposes of this Act by reason only of" misconduct, deficient professional performance, "a conviction or caution in the British Islands for a criminal offence, or a conviction elsewhere for an offence which, if committed in England and Wales, would constitute a criminal offence", "(d) adverse physical or mental health", not having the necessary knowledge of English, or an adverse determination by another UK or overseas health/social care regulator. Other statutory and professional regulators (nurses and midwives, dentists, solicitors, and others) operate broadly equivalent fitness to practise frameworks, each defined in their own governing legislation or rules but built around the same core concept of impairment.

Fitness to practise proceedings are separate from criminal or civil liability: a professional can face regulatory sanction — a warning, conditions on practice, suspension, or removal from the register — even where no criminal offence is proved, because the test is forward-looking (public protection and confidence in the profession) rather than purely punitive. Interim orders (interim suspension or interim conditions) can also be imposed pending a full hearing where there is a risk to patient or public safety.