The General Dental Council (GDC) has acknowledged ‘significant deficiencies’ in the way it acted following a High Court judgement over its application for disclosure of family court documents.
In the case GDC versus KK and Others, Justice Gwynneth Knowles concluded the GDC showed a ‘woeful ignorance’ about the confidential nature of documents produced for the purpose of care proceedings, and about how requests for disclosure should be managed.
The background
In July 2019, the GDC made a request to Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council for the disclosure of information relating to the care proceedings involving a registered dental professional, known as KK.
This came after the GDC received an anonymous letter stating that KK was on police bail in respect of criminal investigations regarding an allegation that he had assaulted his former wife and her two older children.
The local authority provided a ‘significant volume’ of documents from and connected with the care proceedings to the GDC in the absence of any order from the family court authorising such disclosure.
In May 2023, the GDC opened its case against KK. It made an application for permission from the Family Court to the disclosure of documents in public law proceedings concerning the children of KK. The GDC sought to use the material in proceedings before its Professional Conduct Committee in fitness to practise proceedings.
Discussions during the case prompted, for the very first time, consideration as to whether permission had been obtained by the GDC to rely on materials from the family court proceedings.
Following a hearing in April this year, the GDC was ordered to destroy all previously disclosed and unauthorised material from its storage facilities. It also had to liaise with all and any external parties holding this material to effect their permanent deletion of this material.
In March this year, the Interim Orders Committee of the GDC also revoked KK’s interim suspension. A new date has yet to be fixed for the part heard PCC hearing.
A ‘salutary warning’
Justice Knowles acknowledged that the ‘gravity of the conduct alleged against KK was significant’, adding that it was ‘plainly in the public interest for the GDC to investigate any such allegations as part of its procedures’.
She also said that the care proceedings concluded over five years ago and there is no evidence that disclosure of relevant information to the GDC will in any way adversely impact the children’s welfare to any serious degree.
The local authority and GDC both recognised the seriousness of what had taken place, court documents read.
‘The GDC accepted the seriousness of what had taken place and had offered a fulsome apology to [the dental professional],’ they read.
‘It offered to bear its fair share of KK’s costs in these proceedings and it too had engaged in an extensive programme of education and training for its staff to prevent a similar occurrence in future. The GDC accepted that it would be named in my judgment.’
Justice Knowles added: ‘Neither public body acted maliciously.’
She concluded: ‘The contents of this judgment stand as a salutary warning to local authorities and to other public bodies concerned with fitness to practise in occupations concerned with or touching on the welfare of children.
‘It is plain that there was a woeful ignorance about the confidential nature of documents produced for the purpose of care proceedings and about how requests for disclosure should be managed.
‘The costs incurred by the GDC and the local authority have been significant and both have been shamed by what occurred.’
GDC response
‘We take our responsibilities regarding the gathering and handling of sensitive information very seriously and have provided unreserved apologies to the court and the individual concerned in respect of our failings in this case,’ said Clare Paget, interim executive director of legal and governance at the GDC.
‘We will continue to embed the measures that we have put in place to ensure that our approach to seeking disclosure of important material is conducted in line with the relevant legislative regimes to ensure that we can effectively protect the public and maintain confidence in the dental profession.’
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