Number of certificates of good standing

The request was successful.

Dear General Medical Council,

I would like to formally request the number of Certificates of Good Standings that were issued in 2013, 2014, 2015 and up to August 1st 2016.

I would like to know the following information:
1) numbers requested for the above time period
2) the breakdown of the doctors level of expertise making them, ie Foundation doctors, Specialty trainee, and consultant.
3) how many were issued and how many rejected

Yours faithfully,

Dr M Chowdhury

FOI, General Medical Council

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FOI, General Medical Council

Dear Dr Chowdhury

 

Your information request – F16/8360/ME

 

Thank you for your email dated 13 August asking for information in
relation to the number of Certificates of Good Standing that the GMC has
issued since 2013.

 

How we will consider your request

 

We’re going to look at your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA). The FOIA gives us 20 working days to respond but we’ll come
back to you as soon as we can. 

 

Who to contact

 

Mark Ellen will be handling your request. If you have any questions you
can call him on 0161 923 6347 or email him at [1][email address].

 

Yours sincerely

Miss Sadie Jones

Information Assistant

[2][email address]

0161 250 6889

 

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

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Mark Ellen (0161 923 6347), General Medical Council

1 Attachment

Dear Dr Chowdhury

Reference: IAT/ME/F16/8360

Thank you for your e-mail, below.

I attach tables setting out the information you seek. Please note the following caveats in connection with this information:

A doctor can ask the GMC to send a certificate of current professional status to another regulator or an employer. The doctor may need to provide this certificate of current professional status in order to register and practice in another country. Not all doctors who request a certificate of current professional status actually leave the UK. The attached includes a table showing how many requestors from each year are currently still registered in the UK and how many are currently connected to a designated body for the purposes of revalidation. A connection to a designated body is a good indication that a doctor is still working in the UK, though this figure will exclude doctors who have not updated the GMC with their designated body status.

The number of doctors registered in the UK has risen year on year. This has been followed by a rise in the number of certificate of current professional status requests. We've provided the number of doctors on the register at the end of each year to provide context for this increase.

As certificates of current professional status are only valid for three months, doctors often make multiple requests. We've only counted each individual once within a year, but if their requests span more than one year, they will be counted against each.

Being on the GP or specialist register at the time of making a request does not guarantee that a doctor was practicing as a GP or specialist at that time.

The report counts doctors who were registered at the time of making a CCPS request. The doctor does not have to have held a licence at the time they requested the CCPS. It does not count doctors requesting a certificate of past good standing.

In mid-September 2015 and mid-February 2016 doctors posted to social media encouraging one another to make CCPS applications as a way to protest against a proposed change to their employment contract. There was an immediate spike in applications . We cannot distinguish between doctors making a protest application and those actually considering working abroad, and we advise this spike is treated with caution, and considered in the context of the number of these doctors still registered or connected to a designated body.

I hope that this information is helpful to you.

Kind regards
Mark Ellen

Mark Ellen
Information Access Team
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester  M3 3AW
Direct Line: 0161 923 6347

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