General Dental Council v Harper

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.

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.

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.

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

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: I have that. Thank you.

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

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: 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?

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

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: They have not determined whether it amounted to misconduct?

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

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: It does not sound very difficult.

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

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: How long will the hearing take, one day?

MR DOS SANTOS: One day.

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: You have a date in May?

MR DOS SANTOS: 4 May.

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: 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?

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

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: There was some point being raised by you about composition of the committee.

MR DOS SANTOS: Part of the reason, most likely, why it is 4 May rather than an earlier date is that of course once a committee starts to hear a matter, Ms Simone Harper has the same constituted committee.

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: It is clear that the same committee -- it is not a fetter in any way? You are ready to go?

MR DOS SANTOS: That is right. The only reason why I have asked for six months -- of course the court has power to grant up to twelve months, but the shortest period --

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: These things should not drag on and they should not keep coming back to the High Court. There are quite a lot of these applications.

MR DOS SANTOS: It is just to allow for, in the circumstances of this case, there being a problem with what is now set in place that I have asked for six months rather than, for example, six weeks.

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: An unforeseen problem, ill-health on the part of one of the members or whatever?

MR DOS SANTOS: Yes. Those are things that can more easily be dealt with when it is --

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: Have we got an order I can sign, please? There is one in the bundle.

MR DOS SANTOS: That is the draft order.

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: I have just removed it. Done. Good. It is the same one, I think, as is already in the bundle?

MR DOS SANTOS: That is right.

MR JUSTICE HOLGATE: I have signed it. Thank you for your help.