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Guidance has been published as the General Pharmaceutical Council and other health regulators prepare to use new powers that will allow them to strike off registrants without a public fitness to practise hearing through the use of ‘accepted outcomes’.

The powers, which will come into force once legislation is reformed, will allow for “less adversarial” and “quicker” outcomes said the Professional Standards Authority, which oversees UK health regulators.

The PSA guidance states that ‘accepted outcomes’ are appropriate in circumstances where:

• A registrant has agreed to any final sanctions
• They have accepted their fitness to practise is impaired
• And they accept the findings of the case examiner

The PSA said: “We support these reforms, which we expect to significantly improve regulatory processes and benefit all those involved in fitness to practise cases, including complainants, the public, and registrants. 

“We hope that they will result in a system that is more efficient, less adversarial and fairer to all concerned.”

But it said there are also risks around the “robustness, independence and transparency of decision making in certain contexts” as well as “possible adverse impacts on public confidence and people with shared protected characteristics”.

The PSA said that hearings should still be considered when:

• There is a dispute of fact or conflict of evidence that can only be fairly tested at a hearing
• The case is sufficiently complex that a hearing would be beneficial
• It would be “beneficial and proportionate” to test the registrant’s insight at a hearing.

PSA chief executive Alan Clamp commented: “We’ve produced this guidance to help make these reforms a success. 

“Regulators will receive new powers giving them much-needed flexibility both in how they regulate and in how they resolve concerns about professionals. 

“The regulators are mindful that alongside these new powers sits a continued responsibility to focus on public protection. Our guidance will support good practice in how they use these new powers.”