Report comment

Regulators of other professions have mostly moved from the criminal to the civil standard of proof. As one commentator has already mentioned 'the more grave the allegation the higher the evidential standard required to establish the same'. The problem is that sometimes the initial test applied to decide whether a referral should be investigated or not is seriously diminished resulting in many more cases proceeding. Having said that, in my experience with one such regulator in the health care sector, the unqualified and seemingly inadequately trained case officers who run those cases, including carrying out the investigations, do not fully understand the rules of evidence or the standard required. Those who are qualified and meant to supervise the case officers are overstretched due to the high volume of cases with the result that a significant percentage of hopeless cases go to hearing wasting time, money and often damaging a professional's reputation, self-esteem and general health. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.