Its chief responsibility is to "protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public" by controlling entry to the register, and suspending or removing members when necessary.

The Medical Act 1983 (amended) notes that, "The main objective of the General Council in exercising their functions is to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public.

[5] Due to the principle of autonomy and law of consent there is no legislative restriction on who can treat patients or provide medical or health-related services.

Section 46 prohibits any person from recovering in a court of law any charge rendered for medical advice, attendance or surgery unless he is registered.

Section 47 provides that only those registered can act as physicians, surgeons or medical officers in any NHS hospital, prison, in the armed forces or other public institutions.

The rationale of the criminal law is that people should be free to opt for any form of advice or treatment, however bizarre...[12]Registration with the GMC confers a number of privileges and duties.

However, unlicensed but registered doctors in the UK are still subject to fitness-to-practice proceedings, and required to follow the GMC's good medical practice guidance.

[citation needed] The GMC sets standards of professional and ethical conduct that doctors in the UK are required to follow.

[21] This outlines the standard of professional conduct that the public expects from its doctors and provides principles that underpin the GMC's fitness-to-practise decisions.

The GMC also provides additional guidance for doctors on specific ethical topics, such as treating patients under the age of 18, end-of-life care, and conflicts of interest.

It runs 'quality assurance' programmes for UK medical schools and postgraduate deaneries to ensure that the necessary standards and outcomes are achieved.

[23] In February 2008 the then Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, agreed with recommendations of the Tooke Report which advised that the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board should be assimilated into the GMC.

[24] Whilst recognising the achievements made by PMETB, Professor John Tooke concluded that regulation needed to be combined into one body; that there should be one organisation that looked after what he called 'the continuum of medical education', from the moment someone chooses a career in medicine until the point that they retire.

On 18 June 2021, the GMC, for the first time in its history was found guilty of racial discrimination against a non white doctor by a UK court.

The tribunal heard Dr Karim was an internationally renowned urologist of mixed black African and European descent who had been a whistle blower in a case about surgeons performing operations without appropriate training.

After the hearing, Dr Karim said: "Right from the outset, the GMC saw me as a guilty black doctor and withheld evidence that could have proven my innocence.

Since 2001, the GMC's fitness-to-practise decisions have been subject to review by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE), which may vary sentences.

[41] In July 2011, the GMC accepted further changes that would separate its presentation of fitness-to-practise cases from their adjudication, which would become the responsibility of a new body, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.

[47] Concern has resulted from several studies that suggest that the GMC's handling of complaints appears to differ depending on race or overseas qualifications, but it has been argued that this might be due to indirect factors.

[48] However a ruling on the 18th of June 2021 by a UK court for the first time found the GMC guilty of racial discrimination in its disciplinary procedures.

In a warning on "over-regulation" Dr Clare Gerada, a former chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, commented:We already spend up to one billion pounds regulating doctors.

[55] Following the suicide of Professor John E Davies from Guy's Hospital, London, HM Senior Coroner for the area wrote to Niall Dickson with her Regulation 28: Report to Prevent Future Deaths:[56]This is the second death of a doctor that has come before me over the last 2 years where a GMC investigation into the doctor's practice has been found to play a part.

[57]Academics at King's College London researched the effects of increased regulatory transparency on the medical profession and found significant unintended consequences.

[62] The GMC was most heavily criticised by Dame Janet Smith as part of her inquiry into the issues arising from the case of Dr Harold Shipman.

Dame Janet maintained that the GMC failed to deal properly with Fitness to Practise (FTP) cases, particularly involving established and respected doctors.

She had also campaigned against Sir Roy Meadow and Professor David Southall, who were erased from the medical register by the GMC but subsequently re-instated after court rulings.

In March 2012, the High Court of England and Wales overturned a 2010 decision by the GMC to strike pediatric gastroenterologist John Walker-Smith off the medical register for serious professional misconduct.

[67] In his ruling, the presiding judge criticized what he said were the GMC's "inadequate and superficial reasoning and, in a number of instances, a wrong conclusion," and stated, "It would be a misfortune if this were to happen again.

[70] Many doctors felt this reflected a clear conflict of interest and signed a petition to the medical council for transparency in its appointment process.

In response to the Government's recent proposals the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence has made a call for ideas in their December 2011 paper 'Cost effectiveness and efficiency in health professional regulation'[79] for 'right-touch regulation' described as being based on a careful assessment of risk, which is targeted and proportionate, which provides a framework in which professionalism can flourish and organisational excellence can be achieved.