Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Regulating healthcare professionals, protecting the public, consultation response - analysis, published on 17 February 2023, when he will remove the Five Year Rule from legislation.

The Government’s response to the public consultation ‘Regulating Healthcare Professionals, Protecting the Public’, included the Government’s commitment to the removal of the five year time limit for fitness to practice concerns to be investigated by the General Medical Council (GCM), the body which registers medical practitioners.

It is our intention that this change will be delivered as part of our planned programme of reforms to the legislative framework for regulated health and care professionals across the United Kingdom.

The GMC does not automatically reject historic complaints under the five year rule but, as required by the legislation, assesses each historic case on whether pursuing fitness to practice proceedings are in the public interest.