Character control - power of HPC

When Richard Reeves did some research for a paper (co-written with Phil Mollon) on state regulation he reviewed cases from the HPC complaint hearings.

He was struck by several instances where police cautions had been issued to an individual which were non-related to professional work (e.g a chiropodist who had been involved in a ‘punch-up’ with his parents). He wondered how HPC had obtained this information – below is their reply.
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Dear Sir,

Thank you for your email.

The HPC is involved in the Notifiable Occupations Scheme, in relation to the Home Office Circular 6 / 2006.

Notifiable Occupations are those in which the public interest in the disclosure of conviction and other information by the police or other officials, generally outweighs the normal duty of confidentiality owed to the individual.
Our thirteen professions are included in the list of occupations that carry special trust or responsibility under the Scheme.

Notifying bodies, such as the police, courts and other bodies, send us information about criminal offences committed by registrants if the offence is relevant to HPC registration.

I hope this information is useful to you.

With regards

Simon Thompson
Case Manager
Health Professions Council
Park House
184 Kennington Park Road
London SE11 4BU
www.hpc-uk.org

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There is something rather troubling about this - the creation of the HPC seems to be leading to the invention of a pseudo-legal platform that is essentially moral in character. It is this that I noticed at the CHRE meeting earlier in the year, and that makes me wonder whether an unintended consequence of this mistaken endeavour is to lead to the re-invention of a psuedo state related religion.