Absence from Hearing

Brabazon-Drenning v UK Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (Unreported 31 October QBD)

A nurse was struck off the Register of Nurses following a disciplinary hearing at which she had not been present. Prior to the hearing evidence had been sent indicating her unfitness to attend. The court found that where the livelihood and professional reputation of a person was at stake, and in the absence of any overriding public interest considerations, it was a violation of the principles of natural justice and of Article 6 of the ECHR for a tribunal to proceed with a hearing when there was unchallenged medical evidence that the individual was too ill to put her own case.