Fitness to practise

General Info

There are a number of questions with 'Yes'/'No' answer fields within this section, relating to issues of Fitness to Practise (FtP). No further fields arise beyond these, regardless of the answer you select; however, please note that any deanery you apply to may contact you to request further information.

As described below, please do be aware that the information you provide here will be regarded and treated as strictly confidential.

Answering 'Yes' to any of the questions here will by no means bar you from appointment necessarily; but omitting important details or providing false information would be much more likely to cause a barrier to appointment, and in serious cases may even cause you to be dismissed and reported to the GMC.

Criminal offences

A number of the FtP questions herein relate to criminal offences, convictions, proceedings, etc. which you may have been involved with. Please be aware that ST3 posts (as with most medical posts) are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and thus you must declare absolutely all criminal offences, convictions, etc. regardless of whether or not they can be regarded as 'spent'.

The only exception to this is in the case of parking offences – these you do not need to declare. Absolutely all other offences/convictions, including those relating to driving - even speeding tickets - must be declared.

Good Medical Practice

You and all other candidates are expected to adhere to the GMC's Good Medical Practice, which requires that you do your best to ensure any information you provide to prospective employers is not false or misleading; this also includes the omission of information.

Should you receive an offer of employment, the employer is obliged to carry out a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check at an enhanced level, and so any attempts to avoid disclosing information may well be discovered.

FtP verification is vital

As suggested, where material exceptions do arise, it does not necessarily mean that your application will be rejected. Candidates may well progress to being offered a post, despite a material incident having occurred several years previously, with no evidence of recurrence and with the candidate continuing to be registered with the GMC.

However, given the field we are in, as you can imagine it is extremely important that the assessment and verification of each candidate's FtP is carried out in full.