Seminar Overview
Tom Kark QC chaired the eponymous Kark review, commissioned by the Minister of State for Health, of the fit and proper persons test (FPPT). It was an independent review of how effectively the test prevents unsuitable senior directors from being redeployed or re-employed in health and social care settings. The review found that there were few fans of the test as it is currently applied and that, essentially, it does not ensure directors are fit and proper for the post they hold, and it does not stop the unfit or misbehaved from moving around the system. The review made five core recommendations to address the problems identified.
The FPPT remains the accreditation test commonly adopted in diverse contexts in a wide range of regulatory frameworks, including by the Financial Conduct Authority, accountancy regulators, such as ACCA and ICAEW, and in relation to the management of football clubs within the major football leagues (the Premier League, the Football League, the National League and the Scottish Premier League).
In this seminar, the speakers will consider the FPPT and the extent to which the problems identified and lessons learned in the Kark review have an impact on the test in its wider regulatory context.
Chair: Sir Robert Francis QC. His practice encompasses clinical negligence, medical ethics, inquiries, professional discipline and regulation, medical employment issues and public law. He chaired the two Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust inquiries and the NHS Freedom to Speak Up Review and is currently acting in the Undercover Policing Inquiry. He is instructed in litigation in overseas jurisdictions including the Isle of Man, Cayman Islands and Hong Kong. He is a non-executive director of the Care Quality Commission, Chair of Healthwatch England, and President of the Patients’ Association.
Tom Kark QC specialises in criminal, public and regulatory law and sits as a Recorder of the Crown Court. His recent criminal cases include the prosecution of the Shoreham air show disaster. His professional regulatory practice includes presenting and defending in difficult and noteworthy cases for and against regulators. He acted as counsel to the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Inquiry and undertook the review of the FPPT for the Minister for Health in 2018. He has acted for the Home Office in IICSA and has recently started a new service with Verita Consultants undertaking private internal investigations and reporting.
Jamie Hunt leads the in-house professional regulatory team at Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). He initially practised at the Criminal Bar and soon developed a specialist professional discipline practice and went on to take up roles at the Nursing and Midwifery Council and then Blake Morgan LLP, where he undertook work for the General Dental Council, the General Osteopathic Council, Association of Accounting Technicians, Architects Registration Board and the General Optical Council. Jamie sits as a barrister member of the Bar Standards Board Authorisations Review Panel, he has also taught and assessed on the Bar Transfer Test and the Solicitors Higher Rights qualification.