Shona successfully represented a mental health nurse with 20 years’ experience and an unblemished record in long-running, complex Fitness to Practise proceedings before the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s regulatory panel.
The case concerned 13 charges arising from events during the Covid-19 lockdown in early 2020, including serious allegations of dishonesty. Proceedings spanned multiple weeks of hearings in 2025 and 2026, with the regulator seeking the most serious sanction available within its disciplinary jurisdiction: a striking-off order.
Shona advanced a number of technical and procedural challenges. At the outset, she successfully resisted parts of an application to admit hearsay evidence and succeeded on a submission of no case to answer under Rule 24(7) in relation to 8 of the 13 charges, including the most serious allegations. An abuse of process application was also pursued.
Shona’s final submission of no case to answer under Rule 24(8) in respect of the 5 remaining charges proved persuasive and succeeded in full. The Panel determined there was no realistic prospect of finding that the Registrant’s alleged actions amounted to misconduct and impairment. This brought the proceedings, relating to matters some six years ago, to a final and decisive end.
Shona was instructed by Kate Prior of the Royal College of Nursing.
