Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all NHS Trusts allow accompaniment in any meeting where disciplinary action or dismissal is a potential outcome.

It is a statutory requirement that all workers are entitled to be accompanied by a work colleague or a trade union representative or official at any disciplinary hearing. This right applies to all National Health Service staff and is set out in the handbook to the NHS Constitution for England.

Where the outcome of a hearing could result in the worker’s professional career being put at risk, they can request to be accompanied by a legal representative.