Despite a turbulent past, the General Dental Council is striving to become a better and more trusted regulator, and improve confidence among the profession. But as GDPUK finds investigations are taking up to nine years to process, experts tell us they have a difficult task ahead. Sophie Borland reports

 

Ten years ago, the General Dental Council was in a state of crisis. Shadow health minister Lord Hunt had called for its entire board to resign over what he described as a ‘culture of utter complacency’ and the previous year – 2015 – it had been ranked the worst performing health regulator in the UK. Many dentists felt the GDC was actively encouraging patients to complain about them and then turning these complaints into potentially career-ending investigations.

The British Dental Association (BDA), the trade union, had described it as ‘expensive,’ ‘inefficient’ and claimed confidence in the regulator among the profession had reached the ‘lowest point ever experienced’.

Fast-forward to 2026 and the GDC is promising to become ‘trusted,’ more ‘supportive’ and it is taking steps to tackle the ‘climate of fear’, which many dentists believe it instigated.

So how is it fairing? Has it suitably moved away from its reputation as being ‘inefficient’, ‘expensive’, with low confidence from the profession? GDPUK sought to answer this through the use of FOI around its fitness-to-practice processes and its spending – and the answers are mixed.

Investigation dragged on for nine years

In her own words, the GDC’s executive director of regulation, Theresa Thorp, says fitness to practice investigations are taking ‘too long’, they’re ‘overly complex’, and often cause ‘real fear and distress.’ Speaking in June as the regulator published fitness to practice data, she promised to focus ‘firmly on reducing that fear and improving the experience for everyone involved.’

To look into how long some of these investigations were taking, GDPUK submitted an FOI request to the GDC asking for details of the longest running investigation. The response revealed that one investigation which ended in 2025 had gone on for nine years and one month (474 weeks) whilst another which had finished in 2024 had lasted eight years and two months (426 weeks).

Although most investigations are far shorter, the average time taken for those investigations which concluded in 2025 and 2024 was just under a year – 51 weeks – still well above the regulator’s target of seven months. In addition, the GDC told us that 375 investigations that finished in 2025 had lasted over a year, on top of the 399 investigations which ended in 2024 that went on for over a year.

Speaking generally about the problem of investigations dragging on too long, Dr Eddie Crouch, chair of the BDA tells us: ‘Anyone who is going through the whole process through to a fitness to practise, the time periods are just completely unacceptable and very stressful for the people going through.

‘It’s not fair for the patients they’re treating because if you’ve got a clinician who’s coming into work every day still wondering about where this complaint is actually going, it’s not conducive to providing good and safe dental care.’

Martin Skipper, head of policy at the LDC Confederation, a representational trade association for Local Dental Committees in England, says: ‘The pressure that it puts on an individual is just extraordinary because it’s not just their professional life which is under strain, it’s every aspect of their personality which is under strain.

‘To not have certainty or clarity for nine years or for four years or even for one year is really not appropriate. What we do recommend, no matter how long a process takes, is frequent supportive communication from the GDC to all registrants.’

Increase in complaints

In fairness to the GDC, some of this will be due to the increase in the number of complaints overall. Its Fitness to Practise Statistical Report 2025 found that 1,766 new concerns reached the first stage for initial assessment in 2025, which represents a 26% rise on 2024.

This does not seem to have been matched by an increase in the number of completed assessments, with 1,293 finished in 2025 – one fewer than the previous year. As Peter Ingle said on GDPUK, this ‘raises a question about whether the backlog could increase. The assessment caseload at the end of the year rose from 564 to 761 - up 35% - which suggests pressure is already building at that stage.’

But the report reveals that it is also closed 19% of new concerns at the initial assessment stage, something the GDC has been working on and represents the highest percentage in the last four years.

The average time to complete the assessment stage increased from 76 working weeks in 2024 to 78 in 2025. However, the average time from assessment decision to final case examiner decision dropped from 50 working weeks to 36.

The cost – and expenses – of the GDC

Back in January 2016, the shadow Labour health minister Lord Hunt described a ‘culture of utter complacency’ within the GDC over its poor performance and the attitude of its executives. Lord Hunt – who said all members of the board should resign – had reason to criticise the regulator again in April 2016 after the BDA found it had spent half a million pounds on legal fees, redundancy payments and PR bills. The BDA’s chairman at the time, Mick Armstrong, described the costs as ‘particularly galling.’

GDPUK wanted to investigate the GDC’s spending practices today so we put in an FOI request asking for a detailed breakdown of bills using company credit cards. These are cards given to staff which are meant to be used on low-cost items when there is a genuine business need.

Our response showed that £399,735 had been spent on the cards since 2023 including £120,748 in 2025. As with most of the regulator’s budget, the cards are mainly funded from the registration fees of dental professionals.

One of the most expensive bills was for a £1,636 meal at the Ask Italian restaurant in London’s Mayfair in December 2025 and there was also a £863 meal at the Cote French Brasserie in Central London last September. In total, GDPUK counted the credit cards being used on 90 restaurant meals throughout 2025.

They were also used for a £1,410 trip to a series of ‘escape rooms’ on London’s Oxford Street last August which are described as a ‘highly immersive, five-star’ environment. The firm offers team-building packages where clients solve clues and complete missions against the clock. There was also a £476 bill for the Riva Blu restaurant and cocktail bar in Birmingham in April 2025 and another £234 bill for the Flight Club darts club and cocktail bar, also in Birmingham, last December.

This money had largely come from the registration fees of dental health professionals which were the most expensive of all health regulators at the time. Unfortunately, this remains the case.

Responding to the findings, BDA chair Eddie Crouch said: ‘The GDC is on a long journey to restore the confidence of dentists. And nothing goes to the heart of that more the fees it levies and how it spends the proceeds.

‘Some progress has been made here, but registrant fees are paid to fulfil the GDC’s statutory functions. Every last penny spent that doesn't achieve that needs to be justified.’

But Dr Simon Thackeray, president of the British Association of Private Dentistry says: ‘That’s a big spend, £400,000, but then how many is this divided by? If you look at the GDC, it operates as a regulator but it doesn’t get any funding from anywhere else. So its running as a business and we are the customers of that business, as the profession. Now does that mean that they cant have a Christmas party, can they not have something to promote staff wellbeing?’

A GDC spokesperson said: ‘Corporate credit card spending is subject to a clear policy setting out that all expenditure must be for GDC business purposes and represent value for money, and a fully itemised receipt is required for every transaction. Every payment referenced complies with our expenses policy, regardless of the supplier.’

They added: ‘Many of the payments referred to relate to group meals, meetings or events, rather than individual spend. For example, where individuals travelling across the UK for meetings share a single bill for accommodation or food, this can appear as one larger transaction rather than several smaller ones. All such spend falls within our published per-head meal allowances.’

‘Best opportunity we’ve had in a long time’

Despite its difficult past, senior dentists tell us the GDC board have got the ‘attitude’ and ‘appetite’ for change.

Its chief executive Tom Whiting, appointed in April 2024, was previously acting director general of the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct. According to the GDC, he was credited with creating a motivated workforce dedicated to improving public trust and confidence in policing.

There are already encouraging signs and last December, the GDC met 16 out of 18 of the Professional Standards Authority’s standards for good regulation – the body which oversees regulators. This is a big improvement from 2015 when the regulator failed to meet eight of what was then 24 standards, making it the worst performing of the nine health and social care regulators.

Dr Simon Thackeray says: ‘One of the problems is they are stuck with the legislation and with no apparent appetite from Government to actually change that. A lot of the fundamental changes that are needed will need legislation change.’

But he is hopeful of change and adds: ‘They’re approachable. They’re actually people who you will meet at events. If anyone’s going to make a change within the realms of what the legislation will let them do, these are the people who can probably do it. They’ve got the attitude and the appetite.’

Martin Skipper says: ‘I am hopeful (of change) but you always require optimism in any engagement and you have to believe in people’s sincerity.

‘Warm words are easily spoken and only with difficulty turned into reality. The question is how much effort are they willing to put into changing the system?’

Dr Eddie Crouch adds: ‘I think we’ve got the best opportunity that we’ve had in a long time to significantly improve the perception of the GDC with the profession.’