GDC To Continue Surveillance and Under Guise Investigations
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- Published: Sunday, 18 August 2024 18:06
- Written by Peter Ingle
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The General Dental Council [GDC] has a history of using covert surveillance including under-guise investigators, when building Fitness to Practise (FTP) cases. In 2021 it admitted ‘unlawfully undertaking an under-guise operation without reasonable justification‘, and paid an undisclosed sum of damages to a clinical dental technician supported by Dental Protection. The GDC had instructed an under-guise operation creating a fictitious scenario with two private investigators posing as relatives of “Evelyn”, an elderly relative who needed dentures but was too ill to attend in person.
At that time many in the profession were under the impression that the GDC would not be carrying out under-guise investigations again, since they were widely viewed by many, including the BDA, as entrapment.
A new GDC statement makes clear that their use will remain a part of the FTP toolkit. In a ‘soft launch’ tucked away on their news pages, there is a brief piece entitled “GDC publishes updated Covert Surveillance Guidance.” In a mere 150 odd words they explain that the guidance, “Highlights our commitment to transparency, legality, and the protection of individual privacy during both fitness to practice (FtP) and illegal practice (IP) investigations.”
Half of the GDC’s brief news feature was filled by a quote from Stefan Czerniawski, Executive Director, Strategy, at the GDC. Understandably he emphasises the GDCs role in protecting the public, as does the document.
The guidance document contains some detail about how and when the GDC will carry out covert surveillance. It also clearly states that under-guise investigations remain part of their toolkit. Paragraph 40 describes how they work: “operations often start with an investigator, posing as a patient or interested member of the public, making an approach to the registrant through their website, by email or via social media. This initial contact is aimed at eliciting information and will usually prompt, or at least be aimed at prompting, some form of meeting.”
Registrants reading the following paragraph will no doubt be reassured to read that authorisations are required “if there is to be covert manipulation of a relationship to obtain any information and not just private information.”
As Raj Rattan, Dental Director at Dental Protection, said in 2021 in regard to the GDCs actions: “We have very strong concerns about the use of undercover investigators. Dental professionals should be able to be confident that any investigation into them is based on their real-life practice and interactions with others, and not on concocted situations with operatives actively seeking to gather evidence that could be used against them”.
At the same time the BDA demanded that what it referred to as, “cloak and dagger tactics must stop.” It also revealed that between 2013 and 2019, the GDC had spent £59,258.85 on investigators. The BDA described this as “entrapment” and pointed out that registrants’ fees were being used to cover both the costs of this activity and then resulting legal costs and damages.
BDA Chair Eddie Crouch called for fundamental change at the GDC, saying: "The GDC has tried justifying its approach. Clearly the courts have taken a different view and we now expect our regulator clarifies its future policy in this area publicly as matter of urgency.”
Despite this, it would appear that three years on the GDC remain committed to using covert surveillance including under-guise operations.
One section of the GDC document states that: “The power to grant, extend and discontinue authorisations will be restricted to an Authorising Officer, to ensure greater independence and consistency in decision making.” It continues, “Contact ILAS by email for a full list of GDC Authorising Officers.” When GDPUK sent an enquiry to the link provided for ILAS it was returned as undeliverable.
One further question remains. While the announcement of the new guidance appeared on the GDC website on August 15th 2024, the document it refers to carries a publication date of September 2023. Why is the GDC only announcing this now?
covert-surveillance-in-practice.pdf (gdc-uk.org)
Image credit - Dynamosquito under CC licence - not modified.
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