Preparing for your fitness to practise hearing (including the bundle)

To prepare for a fitness to practise hearing, work backwards from day one. Eight weeks out, settle your case theory and witnesses; four weeks out, finalise statements, references and your reflective account; two weeks out, serve a properly indexed defence bundle and confirm logistics; the final week is for read-throughs, a conference with your representative and rest.

A hearing is won or lost in the weeks before it starts. This page — part of the free FtP Navigator — takes you through that countdown. It follows on from case management and directions and leads into giving evidence at your hearing. The full countdown is also available as a free working checklist: the hearing prep checklist template.

How do I prepare for a fitness to practise hearing?

You prepare for a fitness to practise hearing by running a structured countdown — strategy at eight weeks, evidence at four, bundle and logistics at two, and final readiness in the last week. The aim is simple: to walk in knowing every page of the bundle, every witness’s evidence and every weakness in your own account, so that nothing on the day surprises you.

Your regulator must send you a notice of hearing at least 28 days before a final hearing. In practice you should be preparing well before that notice arrives. Diarise every deadline in the directions order the moment you receive it, and treat each one as immovable.

Stage	What to do
8 weeks out — strategy	Read the case papers end to end. Map every allegation to the evidence. Write your case theory in three lines. Decide your defence, character and expert witnesses. Send any outstanding disclosure requests. Instruct counsel and book a first conference. Diarise all directions deadlines.
4 weeks out — evidence	Finalise and sign your own witness statement. Take and test defence witness statements. Receive and comment on the expert’s draft report. Finalise character references and your reflective account. Draft outline submissions on facts, impairment and sanction.
2 weeks out — bundle and logistics	Finalise and serve the defence bundle. Exchange skeleton arguments if directed. Confirm the hearing format and test the technology. Confirm every defence witness’s attendance. Complete witness familiarisation. Book travel and accommodation.
1 week out — final readiness	Full read-through of the bundle. Final conference with your representative. Rehearse the cross-examination you will face. Prepare your hearing-day kit and agree a sleep, food and hydration plan.
Day before	Recheck venue or log-in details, witness contact numbers and your kit. Pack two hard copies of the bundle plus a digital copy and backup USB. Rest — properly.
Day one	Arrive or log in at least 45 minutes early. Greet the panel formally. Take notes through the regulator’s case and pass them to your representative. Debrief at the end of the day.

How should I prepare my witnesses and my own evidence?

Prepare witnesses by familiarising them with the process — never by rehearsing their answers — and prepare your own evidence by testing your statement against every document until nothing in it can surprise you. Witness coaching is professionally improper; familiarisation is permissible and necessary.

Familiarisation means showing each witness the hearing room layout or remote interface, and explaining the order of questioning: chair, regulator, defence, then panel. Tell them that pausing, asking for a question to be repeated and asking to see a document are all normal. Do not discuss the substance of their evidence or show them other witnesses’ statements.

Your reflective account and remediation evidence deserve the same care as your statement. Certificates, supervisor letters, audits and character references should be finalised four weeks out, because insight and remediation are often what separate the more serious outcomes from the less. Your own statement must be signed and dated — panels notice drafts.

What is a hearing bundle?

A hearing bundle is the organised, paginated set of documents the panel reads and works from throughout the hearing. There are usually two: the regulator’s bundle, containing the evidence it relies on to prove the charge, and your defence bundle. Where directions require it, the parties produce a single agreed bundle instead — increasingly the norm, in electronic form.

The regulator decides what goes into its bundle applying a “fair and relevant” test, and must tell you what it proposes before the hearing. You can object to documents; if agreement cannot be reached, the panel decides admissibility after advice from the legal assessor. Check the regulator’s index carefully — this is your chance to challenge unfair material before the panel ever sees it.

Crucially, the regulator’s bundle does not usually contain your evidence. It is for you to decide what the panel sees of your side of the case, which is why the defence bundle matters so much.

What should I include in my defence bundle?

Your defence bundle should contain an index, your signed witness statement, defence witness statements, any expert report, character references, your reflective account, remediation evidence and the documents you rely on. A well-established structure is: Section A — statements; Section B — reflection and remediation; Section C — references; Section D — documents relied on; Section E — authorities and skeleton, if directed.

Leave out anything already in the regulator’s bundle, anything merely cumulative, and anything you could not stand behind under cross-examination. Paginate continuously across the whole bundle — DB/1 to DB/400, not section-by-section — with page numbers bottom right. If the regulator’s bundle runs RB/1–RB/600, start yours at DB/1 so the two can be cited together.

The index is the most overlooked document in the bundle: one page, hyperlinked in the PDF, updated last and never first. For electronic bundles, use a single PDF, bookmark each tab, OCR every page so it is text-searchable, and test it on a tablet as well as a laptop. Panels are tired people reading on the morning of the hearing — make their life easy, because their first impression of your case often comes from your bundle.

How do I quality-assure and serve the bundle?

Quality-assure the bundle by checking the final PDF on a different device from the one used to compile it, then serve it strictly in accordance with the directions order — late service can lead to your evidence being excluded. Run this final check before anything leaves your hands:

• ☐ PDF opened on a different device — no page-jumps, missing pages or broken bookmarks
• ☐ Index read through; every bookmark clicked; page numbers match
• ☐ 10 random pages spot-checked — searchable, correctly oriented, no rogue redactions
• ☐ Duplicate check run — nothing filed twice
• ☐ All witness statements signed and dated, not drafts
• ☐ Continuous pagination DB/1–DB/[N]; index hyperlinked
• ☐ File name self-describing (name, “Defence Bundle”, “final”, date)
• ☐ Served by the deadline; acknowledgement of receipt obtained
• ☐ Hard copies printed and tabbed if required; backup USB prepared
• ☐ Final sign-off by the lead solicitor or counsel

For hard copies, allow one bundle per panel member, plus the legal assessor, the regulator, the witness box, two for the defence and a spare. Large files should go by a file transfer service — and always get written acknowledgement.

What about logistics — venue, remote hearings and timing?

Confirm the hearing format — in person, hybrid or fully remote — at least two weeks out, and test every piece of technology you will rely on before the day. If the hearing runs on the regulator’s video platform, follow that platform’s bundle protocol, and check how witnesses will join.

For in-person hearings, book travel and accommodation early and plan to arrive 45 minutes before the start. Procedures differ between regulators, so read our guides to what to expect at NMC hearings and what to expect at GDC hearings. Notify your employer, occupational health or GP as appropriate, and confirm every witness has the date, time and joining details in their calendar.

Should I attend my hearing — and what happens on day one?

You should almost always attend: if you do not, the panel can proceed in your absence, decide the case on the regulator’s evidence alone and impose a sanction — and an interim order — without ever hearing from you. Attendance is also how insight is shown, and insight shapes outcomes.

On day one, the panel deals with preliminary matters, the charge is read and you confirm your admissions or denials, then the regulator opens its case and calls its witnesses first. You will normally give evidence last. Keep notes throughout the regulator’s case and hand them to your representative — never to a witness.

At the end of each hearing day, debrief with your representative: what went well, what needs adjusting, what documents to produce overnight. Then rest — the case is run in the hearing room, not from a hotel bar.

How do I work with my representative and manage nerves?

Work with your representative through a rhythm of scheduled conferences — first conference within two weeks of instruction, a final conference in the last week and a debrief after each hearing day — and treat nerves as something to be planned for, not ignored. In the final conference, your representative should drill the cross-examination you will face so that no line of questioning arrives unrehearsed.

Managing nerves is practical, not mystical. Build a sleep, food and hydration plan for the hearing days, prepare a hearing-day kit (bundle, notebook, pens, chargers, water, witness contact numbers) and line up support: mindfulness, trusted peers and professional wellbeing helplines. If you become emotional while giving evidence, take a moment — the panel knows this is hard.

Finally, prepare for the end as carefully as the beginning. Have draft closing submissions ready on facts, impairment and sanction, and a sanction bundle — references, reflection, certificates, evidence of supervised practice — ready to deploy. If a sanction is imposed, ask for written reasons and consider the 28-day appeal window immediately.

Free templates in this section

Hearing Prep Checklist (countdown) — the full 8-week countdown from this page as a working checklist, with case identifiers, tick-boxes for every stage and a day-by-day hearing log. Free to read and copy on the page.

Bundle Index and QA Checklist Coming soon — a ready-made defence bundle cover sheet, Section A–E index with pagination columns, compilation and QA checklist, and service log. Coming soon with the bundle preparation section.

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This page is general information, not legal advice. No liability is accepted for reliance on it. Rules and guidance change — always check the current position or take specialist advice.