Taking no further action

The Committee can choose to take no further action and impose no sanction immediately after it has decided that a professional’s fitness to practise is impaired. However, the Committee will only do this in exceptional circumstances, and it should explain its decision very clearly. In most cases where impairment has been found a sanction will be required to secure public safety, uphold public confidence and maintain professional standards.

Before deciding to take no further action, the Committee should carefully identify the information that supports its approach, even though they have found the professional’s fitness to practise to be impaired. An example may be where the Committee has found impairment solely to uphold professional standards, but the remediation and insight shown by the professional are so exceptional that a sanction is not necessary to uphold public confidence in the profession.

Committee hearings normally take place in public so the determination will be made public, however it will not appear on the registrant’s public Register entry.