Update on risk of health and care professionals banned from practising abroad working in the UK

In our role overseeing the health and care professional regulators, we took seriously the recent report in The Times (2 October 2025) on doctors who have been subject to regulatory action overseas being able to register and practise unrestricted in the UK.

We have looked at how this risk is managed by the General Medical Council (GMC) and their response to the concerns raised to see what more can be done to strengthen the current arrangements. Recognising that the risk raised is not unique to doctors and the GMC, we have also explored with all the regulators we oversee their assessment and management of this risk for the professionals they regulate.

Mechanisms to address the risk

All these organisations acknowledge that this is a risk that threatens the integrity of their register and public confidence in the professions they regulate. Although the prevalence of this type of fraud or misrepresentation may be proportionally low, the impact on patient safety, public confidence and regulator reputation is extremely high.

We sought assurance about actions the regulators are taking to further strengthen the registration process. We also wanted to understand where there is appropriate alignment between regulators and opportunities to share approaches. They told us about a number of mechanisms in place to address this risk at the point of initial registration or application for restoration of registration and the most common safeguards used to alert them to a change in registrant fitness to practise.  

Information-sharing

Effective information-sharing between authorities is vital to addressing the risk of professionals failing to declare sanctions imposed outside of the UK. Some regulators have explicit Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with other overseas regulators, particularly where they have identified a high likelihood of professionals being dually registered between them. In a few instances, multiple international regulators have entered into collective information-sharing agreements to broaden the “safety net” between them. However, these networks are only as good as the input each regulator involved puts into it and this can vary.

The GMC and other regulators have written to Ministers and European Competent Authorities to seek strengthened reporting and information sharing between EU regulatory authorities.

The regulators we oversee have gathered to reflect, share and work together to explore additional mechanisms to address this area of risk. We encourage further dialogue and cooperation on this issue.

Ongoing monitoring

We are generally satisfied that the GMC and other regulators are taking appropriate steps to mitigate the risk, however we will continue to test this and closely monitor their performance as well as the additional mechanisms they put in place. Our assessment of this risk will form part of the consideration in our annual performance review of each organisation.

The next performance review of the GMC which includes our findings on this issue will be published on 16 December 2025.

ENDS

Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care

Contact: media@professionalstandards.org.uk