We asked stakeholders to provide feedback on proposed updates to the GOC Indicative Sanctions Guidance. The aim of this guidance is to assist members of the Fitness to Practise Committee (“FtPC”) to understand their individual and collective responsibilities, leading to the making of fair and just decisions. It was developed by the Council for use by its FtPC when hearing cases and considering what sanction, if any, to impose following a finding of impairment.
Most respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the updated guidance achieved our aim of assisting members of the FtPC to understand their responsibilities and enable the making of fair and just decisions. We are very grateful for the positive and constructive feedback that we received, which included:
We reviewed the responses from the consultation and decided whether to accept, reject or incorporate the feedback. The following amendments have been made:
We will hold a review of the guidance no later than 31 March 2023 to ensure it remains up to date
As the UK regulator for optometrists and dispensing opticians, we are committed to protecting the public, maintaining standards, and responding to concerns about the fitness to practise of our registrants. In doing so, there are circumstances in which we need to hold hearings.
Our hearings and indicative sanctions guidance was most recently revised on 1 December 2018. The aim of this guidance is to assist members of the Fitness to Practise Committee (“FtPC”) to understand their individual and collective responsibilities, leading to the making of fair and just decisions. It was developed by the Council for use by its FtPC when hearing cases and considering what sanction, if any, to impose following a finding of impairment.
We have made some updates to the guidance which can be summarised as follows:
The updated guidance, together with a draft impact assessment, is available on the ‘related’ section at the end of the page.
We are interested in stakeholders’ views on these amendments before we finalise the updated hearings and indicative sanctions guidance.
The public consultation will last for a period of 12 weeks.
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