On this occasion the GDC has justified the unprecedented scale of the increase in the ARF primarily on the basis of the increase in the number of complaints that it has to deal with. In calculating its likely operating costs, the GDC has also predicted that this volume of incoming ‘complaints’ will continue to rise for the foreseeable future, and appears to have assumed that the number of Fitness to Practise (FtP) investigations will need to rise at least in proportion to this.

View our full response below.