General Dental Council v Harper

JurisdictionEngland & Wales
JudgeMr Justice Holgate
Judgment Date05 April 2017
Neutral Citation[2017] EWHC 856 (Admin)
CourtQueen's Bench Division (Administrative Court)
Docket NumberCO/1523/2017
Date05 April 2017

[2017] EWHC 856 (Admin)

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE

QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION

THE ADMINISTRATIVE COURT

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand

London WC2A 2LL

Before:

Mr Justice Holgate

CO/1523/2017

Between:
General Dental Council
Appellant
and
Harper
Respondent

Mr A dos Santos (instructed by the General Dental Council) appeared on behalf of the Appellant

The Respondent did not attend and was not represented

1

MR DOS SANTOS: I appear on behalf of the claimant in this matter, the General Dental Council. This is an application to extend an interim suspension order.

2

Before I turn to the application itself, can I deal with two matters of housekeeping. My Lord, no-one appears either on behalf of the respondent or the respondent herself.

3

Can I just confirm that I do have in my possession a certificate of service showing that service was effected upon the respondent or defendant on 27 March and that very same day she emailed a response saying, "To whom it may concern, thank you for information. I will not be attending." She is cognizant of today's hearing and has determined not to attend.

4

The second part, my Lord, is that I served a skeleton argument last week.

Mr Justice Holgate
5

I have that. Thank you.

6

MR DOS SANTOS: It may not have reached my Lord as early as I had hoped.

Mr Justice Holgate
7

These applications are made quite a lot by various regulatory or professional bodies. The important thing is to make sure that if the court grants an extension of time that hopefully it will be the last time that it will be necessary, rather than having repeat applications. That is why I asked about the arrangements made for the conclusion of the conduct proceedings, because effectively the relevant committee, the PCC, has made its determination on misconduct. It is just simply a question of sanction, is it not?

8

MR DOS SANTOS: It has determined the facts but the next stage of the course is —

Mr Justice Holgate
9

They have not determined whether it amounted to misconduct?

10

MR DOS SANTOS: ( Inaudible) for misconduct has not been determined yet, no.

Mr Justice Holgate
11

It does not sound very difficult.

12

MR DOS SANTOS: It is not difficult but one tends to move very quickly from that process on to sanctions.

Mr Justice Holgate
13

How long will the hearing take, one day?

14

MR DOS SANTOS: One day.

Mr Justice Holgate
15

You have a date in May?

16

MR DOS SANTOS: 4 May.

Mr Justice Holgate
17

You have the information that was holding the committee up back in February. Is it not possible to say now whether or not the relevant committee can be convened in May?

18

MR DOS SANTOS: The committee is set to convene on 4 May.

Mr Justice Holgate
19

There was some point being raised by you about composition of the committee.

20

MR DOS SANTOS: Part of the reason, most likely, why it is 4 May rather...

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