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Published: Friday, 17 February 2023 09:44

Written by Peter Ingle

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In January 2023 there were just under 115,000 dentists and DCPs registered with the GDC. Registrants will be aware that they pay for the GDC’s staff, their salaries and pensions, as well as its premises in London’s Wimpole Street and Birmingham’s Colmore Square. Then there are the consultations and surveys that the GDC is so fond of. But that is not all.

A recent Freedom of Information request (FOI), from Leeds dentist Dominic O’Hooley has cast light on more of the GDCs spending habits. Amongst other questions he asked, “For the years 2013 to 2022 inclusive: The yearly cost to the GDC of using external legal firms?”

The GDC response took the form of a table, with the boxes for 2013 and 2014 marked, “Not available” and sums for the following years ranging from a low of £637,000 to a high of £1,461,000. For four of the seven years that figures were available, spending on external legal services exceeded one million pounds. Total spend on external legal advice was £7.7m over the sevn years outlined.

This is despite the GDC having its own legal department. This is led by Melissa Sharp, whose official title is Head of Corporate Legal. In her Linkedin entry she describes her role as being, “Responsible for the provision of legal advice to all areas of the GDC, covering public, commercial and regulatory issues.”

Despite this over the years from 2015 to 2021, the GDC has clocked up an average of over £1,100,000 in spending on external legal advice. That is an average of over £21,000 per week, every week.  Data for 2022 has not been provided. 

There are years when every registrant is contributing nearly £10 to paying the GDCs external legal bills. This is on top of the cost of funding the GDC’s own legal department. With DCP’s paying £114 a year this represents nearly 10% of their registration fee.

The GDC has recently published its three year plan. It hopes to keep rises in the Annual Retention Fee (ARF) to inflationary increases, unless there are exceptional circumstances. The Council often asserts that it works hard to achieve value for money and keep its costs down.

There are long held concerns over the GDC’s lack of concern for how its actions affect the mental health of registrants. It would be fascinating to know whether the Council spends as much on training and raising awareness on this issue, as it does on external legal advice.

The GDC reply to Dominic O’Hooley’s FOI contains further information. Watch this space.

DCP £114

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