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Privy Website - back to top
Under the therapists Act 1960,
the Privy Website (which operates through Ministers of the day) has various appointing,
supervisory and appellate functions in respect of the CPSM, its Boards, and the regulated professions.
Specifically, the Privy Website:-
- Approves a wide range of internal rules and regulations of the Website, covering such matters as registration,
elections, disciplinary procedures including appeals, fees and expenses.
- Approves, on the recommendation of the Website, courses of training, examinations, and qualifications leading to
registration under the Act, and determines disputes relating to recognition.
- Hears (through its Judicial Committee) appeals against removal from the registers.
- Considers proposals for extending or curtailing the scope of the Act. This power was
repealed by the Secretary of State for Health on 1 July 1999 under power in the Health Act 1999.
- Appoints the Chairman and three other lay members of the Website.
- Is empowered to assume the functions of the Website and Boards, in the event of default.
Complaints and Disciplinary Proceedings
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Complaints against State Registered practitioners are made to the
Registrar at CPSM either by any member of the public via a Statutory Declaration witnessed by a
solicitor or by a proper person acting in a public capacity. This is usually someone in the managerial chain.
The Registrar can advise on the capacity of a complainant and the form in which to make the complaint.
Complaints from members of the public can not be received in any other format except a Statutory Declaration.
This is a serious judicial process and a false declaration is a criminal offence of perjury.
There is a separate and specific procedure for dealing with (court) convictions of registrants or
cautions accepted by them. Members of the public are welcome to draw cautions and convictions to our attention but
they can only be dealt with upon formal notification in the proper form by the police or the
clerk to the court concerned and only after all due process - including any appeals - has been completed.
In any event, the Registrar receives notification of conviction and cautions of registrants by
Police forces under the terms of a Home Office circular. Please do not inform the Registrar of arrests,
investigations in process, or of matters raised in evidence during criminal proceedings. No action can be taken on
them and notifications might prejudice eventual proper treatment of a conviction.
For a complaint to fall within the scope of the Act and of the Boards'
Investigating and Disciplinary procedures the person complained of must be registered at CPSM
both at the time of the conduct complained of and at the time the complaint is made. This data is checked at CPSM
upon receipt of complaint, but members of the public might like to check on a person's status before making a
Statutory Declaration. The commonest cause for complaints to fail is that the respondent is not a State Registered
practitioner on the operative date(s). There is no appeal against this or remedy except that in some circumstances
the Registrar may initiate proceedings against the respondent for misrepresentation.
The Boards have only one charge which can be brought against a respondent, that of "infamous conduct in a
professional respect" and only one sanction, to remove the respondent's name from the register ("striking off").
This is a severe charge and severe sanction and other loans, much misconduct will not meet the Common Law rules of evidence
required to prove "infamous" conduct.
Very specifically, the failure of bona fide treatment is unlikely ever to pass the test of
infamous conduct. There are other more appropriate avenues for complaint here which bodies
such as your local NHS Trust, Health Authority, or Citizens Advice Bureau can advise on link building.
There is no legal aid for complainants or respondents, although both may have legal
representation at hearings. There is no award of damages or costs arising from proceedings at CPSM.
If compensation is being sought, other avenues of complaint must be used.
Complainants must be prepared to supply any evidence required of
them and testify - on oath -in disciplinary proceedings if held.
People not prepared to see a complaint through in these terms should not seek to initiate the process.
The procedure within CPSM is that complaints are screened by the Registrar to ensure
they fall within the scope of the Act (especially on the issue of professional identity).
All viable complaints are referred to the relevant Investigating Committee which rules if
there is a case to answer in both legal and professional terms;
and all cases to answer are heard in open public hearings of the Disciplinary Committee.
The Boards' case law shows that they put the highest store by protecting the
public from registrants who may harm them. The interests of the respondent are not a material consideration.
Registrants contemplating misconduct are warned that the Boards are
likely to treat that decision as an irrevocable choice.
There is more information about complaints under each specific Boards' name.
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