Another doctor to appear before MPTS hearing following environmental activism
GP Diana Warner alleged to have been found in contempt of court for blocking traffic on M25 motorway
Another doctor is due to appear before a medical practitioners tribunal this week because of climate activism that has led to contempt of court.
Diana Warner, a GP who retired from clinical practice in 2019, faces a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing in Manchester. It is scheduled to run from August 5 to August 16.
The tribunal will inquire into an allegation that, on 27 and 29 October 2021 Dr Warner breached an injunction order from the High Court preventing her from protesting on the M25 motorway.
It is alleged that the court found Dr Warner’s breaches were deliberate and in contempt of court and committed her to prison for a period of two months and 30 days respectively.
It is further alleged that, on 31 May 2022, at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court, Dr Warner was convicted of criminal damage to public property and sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment.
Dr Warner (pictured second from left, above) has been an environmental activist or 25 years and is involved in the Insulate Britain movement.
Under GMC rules, all convictions resulting in a custodial sentence, whether immediate or suspended, are directly referred to a medical practitioners tribunal.
Earlier tribunal rules: 'Misconduct'
The hearing follows the tribunal of Dr Sarah Benn, a retired GP and environmental activist who had her licence suspended for five months after an MPTS hearing in April.
Dr Benn joined a peaceful Just Stop Oil protest within a buffer zone at Kingsbury Oil Terminal on 26 April 2022 by ‘spreading out and sitting down across the road’, breaching an injunction which amounted to contempt of court. She was released on bail.
She returned to the terminal for another peaceful protest on 4 May 2022, this time standing on a grass verge at the side of the entrance holding a placard. This breached her bail conditions and resulted in eight days on remand in custody.
On 14 September 2022, Dr Benn attended another peaceful protest at Kingsbury, this time ‘sitting down on the road and blocking vehicular access’. As a result, she was jailed for 32 days.
She self-referred to the GMC over these incidents, as she had for previous incidents in 2019; over a public-nuisance charge in connection with the activist group Heathrow Pause, and as part of Doctors for Extinction Rebellion action, glueing herself to a government building and twice obstructing a highway.
The tribunal found that her environmental activism amounted to misconduct because it led to her breaching a court order. The GMC argued that Dr Benn had brought the medical profession into disrepute by not acting within the law.
Speaking to The Doctor after the hearing, Dr Benn said the tribunal decision was ‘misguided’.
The BMA, which is supporting Dr Benn with an appeal, has said the ruling sends a ‘worrying message’.
Latifa Patel, chair of the representative body, said after her hearing: ‘Dr Benn’s actions and her resulting custodial sentence posed no threat to patients, but her suspension implies they do.
‘It is now time for the GMC and the medical profession to review the basis on which Dr Benn found herself in front of a medical tribunal.’
At the BMA’s annual representative meeting in June this year, members backed a motion calling for the union to advocate for protections against punitive actions for doctors participating in activism.
