The General and Specialist Medical Practice (Education, Training and Qualifications) Order 2003

Award and withdrawal of a Certificate of Completion of Training

8.—(1) The Board shall award a CCT to any person who applies to the Board for that purpose (and pays any fee specified by the Board in rules) if the Board is satisfied that he has satisfactorily completed education and training, approved by the Board in accordance with article 4.

(2) A CCT may be awarded only to a registered medical practitioner, and a CCT in the specialty of oral and maxillo-facial surgery may be awarded only to a person who is also a registered dentist.

(3) Subject to paragraph (4), a CCT may be awarded only to a person who has been appointed to a course of training intended to lead to the award of a CCT and has successfully completed that course of training.

(4) Nothing in this article shall prevent the Board from awarding a CCT to a person when exercising its competent authority functions under article 8 of the Directive as set out in article 20(3)(a) of this Order.

(5) The Board may only award a CCT in general practice, or in a specialty listed in Schedule 3.

(6) A CCT shall state—

(a) the date on which it was awarded;

(b) that it was awarded in general practice, or, where applicable, in which specialty it was awarded;

(c) the name of its holder;

(d) his primary medical qualifications and where those qualifications were awarded; and

(e) his registration number in the register of medical practitioners kept by the Registrar of the GMC under section 2 of the Medical Act (establishment and maintenance of registers),

and where more than one year of the training to which the CCT attests took place outside the EEA, the CCT shall make clear that this was so, and shall state the length (in aggregate) of such training.

(7) A CCT shall be signed by the chair of the Board or by such other persons as the chair has nominated for this purpose.

(8) The Board shall make rules as to the procedure to be followed in relation to and by persons wishing to apply to the Board for a CCT, including rules as to the evidence it requires in support of an application for a CCT.

(9) Subject to paragraph (10), for the purposes of article 30 of the Directive (which requires EEA States to institute specific training in general practice), the vocational training certificate issued in the United Kingdom is the CCT in general practice.

(10) The following are also vocational training certificates—

(a) a certificate of prescribed experience; and

(b) a certificate of equivalent experience that has been annotated in accordance with regulation 12(7) of the Vocational Training Regulations, regulation 12(7) of the Vocational Training Regulations (Scotland) or regulation 12(7) of the Vocational Training Regulations (Northern Ireland) (which relate to certificate of equivalent experience).

(11) For the purposes of article 4 of the Directive, the diploma, certificate or other evidence of formal qualifications in specialised medicine in the United Kingdom is the CCT, awarded in a specialty listed in Schedule 3.

(12) Where the Board is satisfied that a CCT has been fraudulently procured or incorrectly awarded, it shall—

(a) direct that the CCT shall be withdrawn; and

(b) notify the GMC that it has withdrawn that person’s CCT.