‘A useful summary of the relevant approach as outlined in the authorities is to be found in the judgment of Langstaff J in Bhatt v General Medical Council. I accept and adopt the approach outlined in these authorities. In particular, that although the court will correct errors of fact or approach: (i) it will give appropriate weight to the fact that the panel is a specialist tribunal whose understanding of what the medical profession expects of its members in matters of medical practice deserves respect; (ii) that the tribunal has had the advantage of hearing the evidence from live witnesses; (iii) the court should accordingly be slow to interfere with the decisions on matters of fact taken by the first instance body; (iv) findings of primary fact, particularly if found upon an assessment of the credibility of witnesses are close to being unassailable and must be shown with reasonable certainty to be wrong if they are to be departed from; (v) but that where what is concerned is a matter of judgment in evaluation of evidence which relates to police practice or other areas outside the immediate focus of interest and professional experience of the FTPP, the court will moderate the degree of deference it will be prepared to accord and will be more willing to conclude that an error has, or may have been made, such that a conclusion to which the panel has come is, or may be, wrong or procedurally unfair’
‘It is plain that where the conclusion of the FTP is largely based on the assessment of witnesses who have been “seen and heard”, this court will be very slow to interfere with that conclusion. Nonetheless, the court has a duty to consider all the material put before it on an appeal in order to discharge its own responsibility, appropriate deference being shown to the conclusions of fact reached on the basis of the advantage of having seen and heard the witnesses. Where this court does not feel disadvantaged by not having heard the witnesses, and the issues can be addressed with little emphasis on the direct assessment of the evidence by the Panel, it is in a position to take a different view in an appropriate case’
‘It is trite law that there is no general common law duty to give reasons. There is certainly no duty to address every argument or every document advanced by the parties…………... In particular the Court of Appeal held in Southall v General Medical Council, applying Phipps v General Medical Council[2006] EWCA Civ 397 , that, in straightforward cases, setting out the facts to be proved and finding them proved, or not proved, would generally be sufficient both to demonstrate to the parties why they won or lost and to explain to any appellate tribunal the facts found. In most cases particularly those concerned with comparatively simple conflicts of factual evidence it would be obvious whose evidence has been rejected and why’. ‘It is only in cases that can properly be described as exceptional that a few sentences dealing with salient issues was essential’