What if a complaint is made about me?

What happens when you receive a complaint?

Once we have correctly identified the registrant the complaint is about, and confirmed that it is a complaint we can consider, we will:

ask for more information if necessary (for example, we might ask for further documents from an employer or ask the police for the circumstances of a conviction);
write to tell you about the complaint, enclosing copies of all the documents we have; and
invite you to respond in writing to the complaint within 28 days of our letter.

You might want to ask for advice from a professional body or union, or for legal advice, when preparing your response. You can send us any information or documents you feel would help us.

The conduct and competence committee deals with cases about misconduct, lack of competence, and convictions and cautions.
The health committee deals with cases where the health of the registrant may be affecting their ability to practise.
The investigating committee will continue to deal with cases where an entry to the register may have been made fraudulently or incorrectly.

The investigating panel will give reasons for their decision and we will write to you and provide you with a copy of their reasons.

If the investigating committee decides that there is a case to answer the information is in the public domain, however, we will not publicise the information until four weeks before the final hearing date. At that stage the name of the registrant, their registration number and the allegation will be on our website.

The investigating panel

We will then pass your response, together with the complaint, to a panel of our investigating committee. This panel meets in private and considers each complaint individually to decide whether we need to take any further action.

Each panel is made up of at least three people, including a chairperson, someone from the relevant profession and a lay person (someone who is not on our register). This panel does not make a decision about whether the complaint is proven. They only decide whether it raises any concerns about a registrant’s fitness to practise. If they believe it does, they refer the complaint to another panel. If they decide that a complaint should go forward, they say that there is a ‘case to answer’. If the panel decides that there is a case to answer, they will refer the case to one of our fitness to practise committees.

If the panel decides that the complaint does not need to be taken any further, they will give reasons for this. We will write to you (and to the person who made the complaint) to tell you about this. We cannot consider the same complaint twice.

If the panel decides that there is a case to answer, they will refer the case to one of our fitness to practise committees.

Interim orders

If the Council feels that the allegation is serious enough that the public might need some type of immediate protection, they might make an application for an interim order. If this happens, a hearing will take place, often at short notice. A panel will consider whether the allegation means placing conditions on your registration or suspending your registration in the period before a final hearing will take place. However, in most cases no application for an interim order is made.

Unless an interim order has been imposed, registrants who are awaiting a hearing are allowed to continue practising.

What happens next?

A hearing will take place to consider whether the allegation against you is proven. We will instruct solicitors, who will identify witnesses and prepare statements and documents in relation to the case.

As soon as we are able to arrange the hearing, we will write to you to tell you the date. We will try to give you as much written notice as possible and must tell you at least 28 days before. If you attend the hearing, you will be able to put over your response to the complaint. You can bring a representative to the hearing. You can be represented by anyone except an HPC Council member or a member of our staff. They do not need to be legally qualified.

You do not have to attend, however you should be aware that the hearing will normally go ahead unless there are very good reasons provided as to why it should not proceed. The hearing will be held in the home country detailed on your registration. In the case of England this will usually be in London.

Before the final hearing, we will give you a copy of documents we will rely on. You can also provide documents for the panel will consider.