The General Medical Council (Constitution) Order 2008
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | SI 2008/2554 |
| Year | 2008 |
2008 No. 2554
Health Care And Associated ProfessionsDoctors
The General Medical Council (Constitution) Order 2008
Made 29th September 2008
Laid before Parliament 6th October 2008
Coming into force in accordance with article 1(1)
At the Council Chamber, Whitehall, the 29th day of September 2008
By the Lords of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council
Their Lordships make the following Order in exercise of the powers conferred by section 1(2) of, and paragraph 1B of Schedule 1 to, the Medical Act 19831.
PART 1
Introductory
Citation, commencement and interpretation
1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the General Medical Council (Constitution) Order 2008 and—
(a)
(a) apart from article 5(h), comes into force on 1st January 2009;
(b)
(b) article 5(h) comes into force on the coming into force of section 44(1) of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 20062(registers: power to apply for vetting information).
(2) In this Order—
“the Act” means the Medical Act 1983;
“chair” means the chair of the General Council;
“final outcome”, in relation to any proceedings where there are rights of appeal, means the outcome of the proceedings—
(a) once the period for bringing an appeal has expired without an appeal being brought; or
(b) if an appeal is brought in accordance with those rights, once those rights have been exhausted;
“licensing body” means any body, other than the General Council, anywhere in the world that licenses or regulates any profession;
“member”, unless the context otherwise requires, means a registrant member or a lay member and includes the chair; and
“spent conviction” means—
(a) in relation to a conviction by a court in Great Britain, a conviction that is a spent conviction for the purposes of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 19743; or
(b) in relation to a conviction by a court in Northern Ireland, a conviction that is a spent conviction for the purposes of the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 19784.
PART 2
Membership of the General Council
Composition of the General Council
2. The General Council shall consist of 12 registrant members and 12 lay members.
Terms of office of members
3.—(1) The duration of the term of office of each member of the General Council shall be determined by the Privy Council, on appointment.
(2) No member of the General Council may hold office as a member of the General Council for more than an aggregate of 8 years during any period of 20 years.
(3) For the purposes of the computation of years under paragraph (2), service as a member of the General Council before 1st January 2005 is to be discounted.
Education and training of members
4. The General Council shall make provision in standing orders with respect to the requirements with regard to education and training of members of the General Council, and those standing orders may provide for—
(a) that education and training to be the responsibility of another body; and
(b) those requirements to be set and varied by that body from time to time.
Disqualification from appointment as a member
5. A person is disqualified from appointment as a member of the General Council if that person—
(a) has at any time been convicted of an offence involving dishonesty or deception in the United Kingdom and the conviction is not a spent conviction;
(b) has at any time been convicted of an offence in the United Kingdom, and—
(i) the final outcome of the proceedings was a sentence of imprisonment or detention, and
(ii) the conviction is not a spent conviction;
(c) has at any time been removed—
(i) from the office of charity trustee or trustee for a charity by an order made by the Charity Commissioners, the Charity Commission or the High Court on the grounds of any misconduct or mismanagement in the administration of the charity—
(aa) for which the person was responsible or to which the person was privy, or
(bb) which the person by their conduct contributed to or facilitated, or
(ii) under—
(aa) section 7 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 19905(powers of Court of Session to deal with management of charities), or
(bb) section 34(5)(e) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 20056(powers of the Court of Session),
from being concerned with the management or control of any body;
(d) has at any time been removed from office as the chair, member, convenor or director of any public body on the grounds, in terms, that it was not in the interests of, or conducive to the good management of, that body that the person should continue to hold that office;
(e) at any time has been adjudged bankrupt or sequestration of the person’s estate has been awarded, and—
(i) the person has not been discharged, or
(ii) the person is the subject of a bankruptcy restrictions order or an interim bankruptcy restrictions order under Schedule 4A to the Insolvency Act 19867(bankruptcy restrictions order and undertaking);
(f) has at any time made a composition or arrangement with, or granted a trust deed for, the person’s creditors and the person has not been discharged in respect of it;
(g) is subject to—
(i) a disqualification order or disqualification undertaking under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 19868,
(ii) a disqualification order under Part II of the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 19869,
(iii) a disqualification undertaking under the Company Directors Disqualification (Northern Ireland) Order 200210, or
(iv) an order made under section 429(2) of the Insolvency Act 1986 (disabilities on revocation of a county court administration order);
(h) has been included by—
(i) the Independent Barring Board in a barred list (within the meaning of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 200611or the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (Northern Ireland) Order 200712), or
(ii) the Scottish Ministers in the children’s list or the adults’ list (within the meaning of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 200713);
(i) has at any time been subject to any investigation or proceedings concerning the person’s fitness to practise by any licensing body, the final outcome of which was—
(i) the person’s suspension from a register held by the licensing body, and that suspension has not been terminated,
(ii) the person’s erasure from a register held by the licensing body or a decision that had the effect of preventing the person from practising the profession licensed or regulated by the licensing body, or
(iii) a decision that had the effect of only allowing the person to practise that profession subject to conditions, and those conditions have not been lifted;
(j) has at any time been subject to any investigation or proceedings concerning the person’s fitness to practise by the General Council, in the course of which or where the final outcome has been that—
(i) the person’s registration in the register has been suspended (including by an interim suspension order or an order under section 38 of the Act14(power to order immediate suspension etc. after a finding of impairment of fitness to practise)) and that suspension has not been terminated,
(ii) the person has been erased from the register (for a reason connected to the person’s fitness to practise), or
(iii) the person’s registration in the register has been made conditional upon their compliance with any requirement (including by an order for interim conditional registration or an order under section 38 of the Act) and that requirement has not been lifted;
(k) has at any time been subject to any investigation or proceedings relating to an allegation that the person’s entry in the register was fraudulently procured, the final outcome of which was the erasure of the person from the register;
(l) has agreed in the course of proceedings concerning the person’s fitness to practise to comply with undertakings, in accordance with rules under paragraph 1(2A) of Schedule 4 to the Act15(procedure and evidence before the Investigation Committee, Interim Orders Panels and Fitness to Practise Panels), and the undertakings continue to apply;
(m) is or has been subject to any investigation or proceedings concerning the person’s fitness to practise by—
(i) any licensing body, or
(ii) the General Council,
and the Privy Council is satisfied that the person’s membership of the General Council would be liable to undermine public confidence in the regulation of the medical profession; or
(n) has at any time been convicted of an offence elsewhere than in the United Kingdom and the Privy Council is satisfied that the person’s membership of the General Council would be liable to undermine public confidence in the regulation of the medical profession.
Removal of members from office
6.—(1) A member shall be removed from office by the Privy Council, if—
(a)
(a) the member resigns, which a member may do at any time by a notice in writing to the Privy Council;
(b)
(b) in the case of—
(i) a registrant member, that member is erased from the register for a reason not connected to the member’s fitness to practise, or
(ii) a lay member, that member becomes a person who no longer satisfies the criteria for being a lay member in paragraph 1A(1)(b) of Schedule 1 to the Act16(membership: general);
(c)
(c) the member becomes a person of the type mentioned in article 5(a), (b) or (e) to (h) (irrespective of whether or not they subsequently cease to be a person of the type mentioned in those provisions);
(d)
(d) the member becomes a person of the type mentioned in article 5(c) or (d);
(e)
(e) in the case of a registrant member, the member has become the subject of any investigation or proceedings concerning the member’s fitness to practise by the General Council, as a...
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