Recommendation F224: Information sharing
From Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry, published 6 February 2013.
Recommendation
Steps must be taken to systematise the exchange of information between the Royal Colleges and the General Medical Council, and to issue guidance for use by employers of doctors to the same effect.
In brief (written by this site)
In commentary from September 2024 published in February 2026, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England recorded the recommendation as implemented, noting that action had been taken in response to it (DHSC and NHS England, Feb 2026). Previously, in May 2024, the Thirlwall Inquiry legal team found that the General Medical Council had produced information sharing guidance for employers and had entered into an information sharing agreement with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges in September 2016 (The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team, May 2024).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
Accepted.
The General Medical Council has made it clear that the exchange of information with Royal Colleges should be further systematised, and that it will take forward action to ensure that this takes place. The General Medical Council will share its proposals in the first half of 2014.
The General Medical Council will work with the Royal Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to develop information sharing agreements with all of the Medical Royal Colleges. In relation to education and training the General Medical Council has made it clear that the exchange of information with Royal Colleges should be further systematised, and that it will take forward action to ensure that this takes place. The General Medical Council will share its proposals in the first half of 2014.
The General Medical Council has developed a closer working relationship with employers through the Employer Liaison Service. It already produces guidance to help employers understand when to share information with the General Medical Council and will reiterate this guidance through meetings with Responsible Officers and Medical Directors.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: This is volume two of "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (Cm 8777-II), the government's response to the Inquiry's 290 recommendations, published by the Department of Health on GOV.UK on 19 November 2013 and dated to that day here. The PDF the row links to is the accessible edition, whose title page reads "January 2014". The Department of Health has been the Department of Health and Social Care since January 2018. The volume says it includes accounts from each of the national organisations the recommendations name, but it does not mark which passage each organisation wrote, so every row is filed under the Department that published it.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
Government responded via "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (2014), a single document covering all 290 recommendations with a blanket acceptance. Individual recommendation responses were not broken out.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England say completed (27 February 2026)
The Thirlwall Inquiry has noted action taken in response to this recommendation following the conclusion of the Mid-Staffordshire Inquiry 2013.
Site note: DHSC and NHS England's own account of progress, supplied to the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024 and printed in the Inquiry legal team's Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). It is not a finding of the Inquiry. Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Implemented – Closed”. Table row: section 18.2 No. 224, PDF page 541.
Site note: DHSC and NHS England's entry for this recommendation says that the Thirlwall Inquiry noted action taken on it. The entry gives no other account of what was done.
Department of Health and Social Care says in progress (11 February 2015)
In February 2014 the General Medical Council published the results of a review of its arrangements for quality assuring medical education and training. One of the main issues highlighted in the review was the importance of effective information sharing between the General Medical Council and the Royal Colleges. The General Medical Council is currently considering how to enhance further current information sharing arrangements with Royal Colleges, with the aim of developing formal agreements with them. A working group has also been established to look at the data held by the Royal Colleges and the General Medical Council, and the best way to use and share this data. The General Medical Council has now begun providing a richer set of tailored, targeted data to the Royal Colleges and gathering further information from the Royal Colleges to inform the General Medical Council’s programme of visits Further, the General Medical Council is beginning to gather further information from Royal Colleges to inform its regional visits programme and, in addition, has invited members of Royal Colleges to support the General Medical Council on selected visits (where its visitor pool does not include the appropriate expertise).
Site note: This is the supporting annex published on 11 February 2015 with "Culture change in the NHS: applying the lessons of the Francis Inquiries" (Cm 9009), attached to the GOV.UK page as "Culture change in the NHS supporting annex". The annex has no title page; that title is GOV.UK's and the PDF's own. Its table has four columns (No., Recommendation, Hard Truths Government response, Progress update), and the row carries the Progress update cell. No column says which organisation wrote an update, so the row is filed under the Department of Health (now the Department of Health and Social Care), which published it.
Site note: The Inquiry addressed this recommendation to the General Medical Council, not to the Department of Health. The annex gives this update in the Department's publication and does not say who wrote it, so the row is the Department's report of the progress made on it.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (15 May 2024)
This recommendation was accepted by the Government.
In the January 2014 Hard Truths report, the Government said that the General Medical Council had produced guidance to help employers understand when to share information with the General Medical Council.
The General Medical Council entered into an information sharing agreement with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges in September 2016.
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024). The review colours its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green, which it uses to mark evidence, identified by the legal team, that a recommendation has been clearly implemented. Table row: section 16.2 No. 224, PDF page 501.
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department of Health and Social Care
Response, delivery statement - DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding