PSA sets out its response to Government consultation on GMC reform
22 Jun 2026
The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) has submitted its response to the Government’s consultation on reforming the legislative framework of the General Medical Council (GMC).
We welcome the overall direction of the proposed reforms, which aim to modernise professional regulation and strengthen public protection across the health and care system.
This comes alongside the publication of the Lord Mann Review into antisemitism and other forms of racism in healthcare, which highlights the need for a more coordinated and consistent approach across the regulatory system. We welcome the Review’s recommendations for the PSA and others. The proposals set out in the GMC consultation – including expanded powers for the PSA – provide an important mechanism for delivering the more coordinated, system-wide response the Review calls for.
In our response to the Government consultation to the GMC Order, we support a number of key proposals to enhance our oversight role, including:
- Retaining our existing powers to appeal fitness to practise decisions made by panels and expanding our powers to allow appeal of interim decisions made by regulators.
- Introducing a new power to require information from regulators to support effective oversight. We have previously called for stronger information‑gathering powers to ensure there are no delays or gaps in access to information needed to protect the public and maintain confidence in regulation; and we are pleased to see the inclusion of this proposal in the draft Order.
- Enabling us to request revisions of certain final decisions made by case examiners.
While supportive of the reforms overall, we have identified a few areas where further clarity or strengthening is needed to ensure the system continues to provide robust and consistent safeguards for the public. In particular, we emphasise the importance of ensuring that where new mechanisms are intended to operate as alternatives to existing appeal processes – such as the proposed “regulator revision” route – they operate transparently and effectively. In our response we propose some improvements.
We also highlight the need for the reforms to maintain confidence in decision‑making processes and to avoid any perception that new routes could weaken public protection or accountability.
The proposal for the GMC to retain its right of appeal over the fitness to practise panel decisions of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service has drawn particular attention from stakeholders. We take a neutral position on this and share the context and our thinking in more detail in our response.
“We strongly support the overall direction of these reforms and the opportunity they present to create a more flexible, effective system of regulation. It is essential, however, that the detail of the legislation provides strong, consistent safeguards to protect the public and maintain confidence in regulatory decision‑making.”
We note that the GMC Order is likely to act as a template for wider regulatory reform, and that decisions taken now will have important implications for the broader regulatory system.
We will continue to engage with the Government and stakeholders as the reforms progress.
ENDS
Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care
Contact: media@professionalstandards.org.uk
Notes to the editor
- The Government consultation on reforming the General Medical Council legislative framework was launched on 24 March 2026. The Lord Mann Review was published on 4 June 2026. Read our initial response to the Lord Mann Review.
- The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) is the UK’s oversight body for the regulation of people working in health and social care. Our statutory remit, independence and expertise underpin our commitment to the safety of patients and service-users, and to the protection of the public. There are 10 organisations that regulate health professionals in the UK and social workers in England by law. We audit their performance and review their decisions on practitioners’ fitness to practise.
- We also accredit and set standards for organisations holding registers of health and care practitioners not regulated by law. We collaborate with all of these organisations to improve standards. We share good practice, knowledge and our right-touch regulation expertise.
- We also conduct and promote research on regulation. We monitor policy developments in the UK and internationally, providing guidance to governments and stakeholders. Through our UK and international consultancy, we share our expertise and broaden our regulatory insights.
- Our values are – integrity, transparency, respect, fairness and teamwork – and we strive to ensure that they are at the core of our work.