GMC fitness to practise statistics & facts

GMC fitness to practise at a glance

The General Medical Council (GMC) received 13,465 concerns about doctors in 2025, the highest number on record. That was 25 percent more than in 2024 and 60 percent more than in 2020. Yet the vast majority of concerns never reach a hearing. In 2025, 11,679 were closed at the first triage stage, 997 led to a full investigation, 184 were referred to a tribunal and 48 doctors were erased from the medical register. Concerns related to about 3 percent of all registered doctors, or 33 concerns for every 1,000 doctors on the register. This report sets out the full GMC fitness to practise data for 2019 to 2025, from the first complaint to the final sanction. For a wider picture of the profession, see our overview of doctors in the United Kingdom.

Fitness to practise is the process the GMC uses to decide whether a doctor is safe to keep working without restrictions. A doctor can be found impaired because of misconduct, deficient professional performance, a criminal conviction, adverse physical or mental health, or a determination by another regulator. Cases that may require action on registration are decided by independent tribunals run by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), which is part of the GMC but operationally separate from it.

How many concerns the GMC receives

The number of concerns raised about doctors has risen sharply since the pandemic. The GMC recorded 8,654 enquiries in 2019 and 8,468 triage decisions in 2020, when pandemic restrictions reduced routine contact between patients and doctors. The total then rose to 9,074 in 2021, 8,893 in 2022, 10,031 in 2023, 10,769 in 2024 and 13,465 in 2025. Part of the growth reflects a larger register: the number of doctors on the register rose from 311,356 in 2019 to 410,566 in 2025. Even so, concerns grew faster than the register over the period.

A record year: Concerns rose to 13,465 in 2025, 60 percent more than in 2020.

Most concerns come from patients and members of the public. In 2025, 10,717 of the 13,465 concerns, about 80 percent, came from the public. A further 552 came from persons acting in a public capacity, mainly employers and the police, of which 190 came from employers specifically. The remaining 2,196 came from other sources, including other regulators and doctors themselves. Concerns from employers are far fewer but much more likely to lead to an investigation, because they usually follow local processes that have already identified a serious problem.

Patients raise most concerns: Four in five concerns came from members of the public.

From complaint to investigation: the GMC funnel

Every concern first goes through triage, where GMC staff decide whether it raises a question about a doctor being fit to practise. In 2025, 11,679 concerns were closed at this first stage, for example because they related to a service complaint, fell outside the GMC remit or had already been handled locally. A further 291 were passed to the employer or responsible officer and closed, 554 went to a provisional enquiry, a short fact check that lets the GMC close cases quickly where a doctor clearly met the expected standards, and 941 went straight to investigation. After provisional enquiries, 997 cases were under full investigation, 7 percent of all concerns.

Few concerns reach a hearing: Of 13,465 concerns in 2025, 184 were referred to a tribunal and 48 ended in erasure.

Investigations themselves have become rarer relative to the caseload. In 2019, 1,549 investigations were opened from 8,654 concerns, about 18 percent. By 2025 the share had fallen to 7 percent, reflecting changes in GMC triage and the wider use of provisional enquiries. Our partner guide to the GMC fitness to practise process↗ explains each stage from the doctor perspective, including the rights a doctor has at every step.

What case examiners decide

At the end of an investigation, two case examiners, one medical and one lay, decide what should happen. They can close the case with no action, issue advice, issue a formal warning, agree undertakings with the doctor or refer the case to a tribunal. In 2025 the case examiners made 679 decisions: 309 cases concluded with no further action, 110 doctors received a warning, 60 agreed undertakings, 16 received advice and 184 were referred to the MPTS.

Most investigations end without a hearing: 495 of 679 decisions in 2025 were resolved by the case examiners themselves.

The number of case examiner decisions has roughly halved since 2019, when there were 1,279. Referrals to a tribunal fell from 347 to 184 over the same period, while warnings rose from 85 to 110. In 2023 and 2024, about a quarter of case examiner decisions resulted in a referral to a tribunal. The 2024 total excludes 30 referrals for criminal convictions, which are handled separately: 30 doctors received a custodial sentence in 2024, up from 21 in 2023.

Tribunal hearings and sanctions

MPTS tribunals decide whether a doctor fitness to practise is impaired and, if so, what sanction is needed to protect the public. In 2025 the MPTS concluded 160 GMC tribunals. Of these, 48 ended in erasure from the register, 68 in suspension and 7 in conditions on practice. In 23 cases the tribunal found no impairment, in 11 it found no impairment but issued a warning, in 1 it found impairment but took no further action, and 2 doctors were granted voluntary erasure. A detailed walk-through of how a hearing runs, from the opening to the sanction stage, is available in this guide to the MPTS tribunal hearing process↗.

Fewer hearings, similar severity: Erasures ranged from 43 to 68 a year, while suspensions fell from 120 in 2019 to 68 in 2025.

The cases that reach a tribunal are, by their nature, the most serious. The GMC reported that more than 90 percent of the tribunal cases concluded in 2025 involved misconduct, criminal convictions or both, and tribunals made 124 findings of impairment. Erasure or suspension accounted for 68 percent of outcomes in 2023 and 77 percent in 2024. Across 2019 to 2025, tribunals erased 399 doctors in total.

Dishonesty is the most common type of case. Across the 160 hearings in 2025, the MPTS recorded 270 case types, because a single hearing can involve several. Dishonesty appeared 74 times, or 27 percent of all case types, sexual misconduct 48 times and other misconduct 41 times. Clinical concerns appeared in 36 cases, health in 24, violence in 23, substance misuse in 12 and discrimination in 7.

Dishonesty leads: More than a quarter of the issues heard by tribunals in 2025 related to dishonesty.

Interim orders while cases are investigated

Where a doctor may pose a risk while a case is investigated, the GMC can ask an interim orders tribunal to restrict their practice for a fixed period. In 2025, interim orders tribunals made 350 decisions: 229 imposed conditions, 55 imposed a suspension and in 66 cases no order was made. That means 284 doctors had their practice restricted on an interim basis, up from 202 in 2023. Conditions are far more common than suspension, because they allow a doctor to keep working under supervision or with limits on what they do.

Conditions dominate: In 2025, 229 interim orders imposed conditions and 55 imposed a suspension.

Who is referred: the disparity in employer referrals

One of the most debated issues in medical regulation is that some groups of doctors are referred to the GMC by their employers more often than others. In the five years to 2020, employers referred 0.58 percent of ethnic minority doctors, compared with 0.30 percent of white doctors, and 0.70 percent of doctors who qualified outside the UK, against 0.28 percent of UK graduates. The GMC set a target to eliminate this disparity by 2026, and the gap has narrowed: for 2020 to 2024 the rates were 0.26 percent for ethnic minority doctors against 0.15 percent for white doctors. The causes and what is being done about them are examined in depth in this analysis of why ethnic minority and overseas-trained doctors are referred more often↗.

A narrowing gap: Referral rates fell for both groups, but ethnic minority doctors are still referred more often.

The GMC statistics also show how different groups are represented at each stage. In 2025, Black doctors made up 7.3 percent of the register and 4.1 percent of triage decisions, but 13.8 percent of tribunal outcomes. White doctors made up 44.6 percent of the register, 31.3 percent of triage decisions and 35.6 percent of tribunal outcomes. Differences at the tribunal stage do not by themselves prove bias, but they are a central reason why the GMC monitors fairness across the whole process. More data on the make-up of the profession is in our report on UK doctors by gender, age and ethnicity.

How the GMC performs as a regulator

The GMC is overseen by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), which reviews every UK health regulator each year against its Standards of Good Regulation. In its review for 2024/25, published in December 2025, the PSA found that the GMC met all 18 standards, including all five standards for fitness to practise. The PSA noted that timeliness from start to finish had improved, although the number of older open cases had increased. The GMC states that it usually reaches a decision on whether to investigate within six months and that triage typically takes 11 weeks.

What the numbers mean for doctors

For an individual doctor, the statistics are both reassuring and sobering. Reassuring, because about 87 percent of concerns are closed at triage and only a small fraction of investigations end in a sanction. Sobering, because the number of concerns keeps rising and an investigation can take many months, with a real effect on wellbeing and career. Doctors facing an investigation are generally expected to show insight into what went wrong and evidence of remediation, such as targeted learning and reflection. Structured options include GMC remediation and CPD courses for doctors↗. The pressures behind many concerns, from workload to burnout, are covered in our report on burnout among UK doctors, and the long-running pay dispute in our report on UK doctor pay.

Outlook

Three trends will shape fitness to practise in the coming years. First, the volume of concerns is likely to keep rising as the register grows, and the GMC has already reported a record 2025. Second, the regulation of physician associates and anaesthesia associates, which began in December 2024, brings a new group into the fitness to practise system. Third, the GMC is under pressure to close the referral gap for ethnic minority and international doctors. Medical students are not on the register, but universities run their own student fitness to practise procedures, a step covered alongside training numbers in our report on medical training in the UK. The next GMC statistical report, covering 2026, is expected in mid-2027. The wider context of the workforce, including international medical graduates and doctors leaving the UK, is covered in our related reports.

GMC fitness to practise in numbers

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