NHS Performers List
Protecting Your Career and Regulatory Position
What is the NHS Performers List?
The NHS Performers List is the official register of healthcare practitioners—including GPs, dentists, ophthalmic practitioners, nurses, and allied health professionals—authorised to provide services to NHS patients. Inclusion on the list is essential to your ability to practise within primary care and NHS services. If you are removed or suspended from the list, your career and livelihood are at serious risk.
The NHS Performers List is managed by NHS England and is regulated under The National Health Service (Performers Lists) (England) Regulations 2013. Being suspended or removed from the list means you cannot undertake NHS work and—depending on the circumstances—may face parallel action from your professional regulator (GMC, NMC, GDC, GPhC, HCPC).
There are three key lists:
What is an NHS Performers List Investigation?
If concerns are raised about your conduct, capability, health, or professional performance, NHS England may initiate formal proceedings through its Professional Standards Group (PSG). This can follow complaints from patients, colleagues, your employer, your professional regulator, or other sources.
Being subject to a Performers List investigation can severely impact your ability to work, your professional reputation, and your future career prospects. Regulation Resolution has extensive experience defending practitioners through all phases of NHS Performers List proceedings, protecting your career and ensuring you can continue practising.
How Does NHS England Decide to Suspend or Remove You?
NHS England can consider suspension or removal based on the following circumstances:
Allegations of misconduct, breach of professional standards, or serious lapses in judgment affecting patient safety or professional integrity.
Questions about your clinical competence, knowledge, or ability to perform your role safely and effectively.
Evidence that your health (physical or mental) may impair your fitness to practise.
Parallel action by your professional regulator (GMC, NMC, GDC, GPhC, HCPC) or criminal convictions.
Concerns that your continued inclusion on the list would pose a risk to patient safety or the efficiency of NHS services.
These assessments involve complex legal and clinical considerations, and it is critical to have expert representation to guide you through each stage.
Why Should You Make Representations?
Being suspended or removed from the NHS Performers List can devastate your career, income, and professional standing.
Regulation Resolution offers expert support to help you prepare a compelling defence, ensuring all relevant evidence and mitigating factors are properly presented. The sooner you seek professional advice, the better your chances of avoiding suspension or removal.
Early intervention, before formal proceedings begin, offers the greatest opportunity to resolve concerns informally and prevent escalation to formal action.
What Happens When NHS England Notifies You?
If NHS England issues you with a formal notice of allegations, it will include a deadline for submitting your representations, typically around eight weeks. If you require additional time to gather evidence or prepare your response, we can request an extension on your behalf.
Your response must directly address the specific concerns raised by NHS England and provide comprehensive supporting evidence, expert opinions, and mitigating factors that demonstrate your fitness for continued inclusion on the list.
Our expert lawyers at Regulation Resolution will ensure your submission is as compelling and thorough as possible, highlighting your qualifications, clinical record, character, remedial steps taken, and any contextual factors that should influence the decision.
What Are Your Options at the Performers List Decision Panel?
If your case proceeds to a formal hearing before the Performers List Decision Panel (PLDP), you have several potential outcomes:
- Exoneration: Allegations are not substantiated; you are cleared.
- Agreed Resolution: Resolution through undertakings, action plans, or agreed conditions that allow you to remain on the list with specified restrictions or requirements.
- Conditions Imposed: You remain on the list but subject to conditions (e.g., clinical supervision, additional training, occupational health assessment, peer review).
- Suspension: Temporary removal from the list, typically pending further investigation or remediation.
- Removal: Permanent removal from the list (the most serious outcome).
We specialise in securing the most favourable outcomes, whether that means exoneration, conditions instead of suspension, or prevention of removal. Our team presents detailed written submissions and oral representations at the PLDP hearing, armed with expert evidence, clinical reassessment, and testimony from your employer and colleagues.
Can You Appeal an NHS Performers List Decision?
Yes. If NHS England decides to suspend or remove you from the list, you have an absolute right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Health, Education and Social Care Chamber)—an independent judicial body that conducts a complete re-hearing of your case on the merits.
The Tribunal can:
- Overturn the PLDP decision entirely and order your immediate reinstatement
- Substitute removal with conditions
- Quash suspension and restore you to the list
- Make any other decision the PLDP could have made
We specialise in Tribunal appeals and have successfully achieved reinstatement and substantially more favourable outcomes through the appeal process, even in cases where the initial PLDP decision appeared adverse.
Why Choose Regulation Resolution?
At Regulation Resolution, we provide a proactive, strategic approach to protecting your career from NHS Performers List suspension or removal. Our specialist team has deep expertise in:
- Early intervention and negotiation with NHS England to prevent formal action before it begins
- Professional Standards Group (PSG) and PLDP proceedings at all stages
- First-tier Tribunal appeals and reinstatement applications
- Parallel regulatory proceedings involving your professional regulator (GMC, NMC, GDC, GPhC, HCPC, GOC, SWE)
- Defence strategies tailored to your profession (doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals, optical practitioners)
We develop tailored defence strategies to ensure the best outcome for your professional future and your ability to continue practising. If you are subject to a Performers List investigation or have received notice from NHS England, don't delay—contact us today for a confidential consultation and let us protect your career and livelihood.
Make an Enquiry
Please do not delay. The sooner you contact us, the sooner we can defend you.
Please call us now on 0208 088 5161 or complete our contact form here and we will be in touch to help you.
To understand how we defend professionals across all regulators, learn about our specialist regulatory defence solicitors.