Colin Fernandes

Introduction

Colin Fernandes is a former operating department practitioner who was struck off the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register in March 2026 after a Conduct and Competence Committee panel found his fitness to practise impaired by reason of conviction. Fernandes had been convicted at Portsmouth Crown Court on 9 January 2024 of sexual assault on a female. Operating department practitioners work in operating theatres alongside surgeons and anaesthetists, and the conviction meant he could no longer be trusted to hold that registration. The panel directed that his name be struck from the register, and imposed an interim suspension order lasting eighteen months to cover any appeal, although Fernandes told the hearing he did not intend to appeal.

Background Information

Fernandes was registered with the HCPC as an operating department practitioner, one of the allied-health professions the regulator covers. The role places its holders in perioperative teams responsible for preparing instruments, equipment and the clinical environment during surgery, and it is a position of close physical proximity to anaesthetised and vulnerable patients, which is why convictions for sexual offences are treated as categorically incompatible with the registration. His conviction was returned by a jury at Portsmouth Crown Court on 9 January 2024, more than two years before the regulatory hearing that ended his registration. The HCPC case that followed was dealt with as a conviction case: the panel did not need to re-hear the underlying facts, because the conviction itself was the foundation of the allegation.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated: convicted, then struck off. The conviction at Portsmouth Crown Court on 9 January 2024 is a matter of criminal court record. The striking off order of March 2026 is the HCPC’s regulatory consequence, imposed after separate proceedings on the civil standard; no new criminal findings were made by the panel.

The HCPC case against Fernandes contained two particulars: first, that on 9 January 2024 he was convicted at Portsmouth Crown Court of sexual assault on a female; second, that by reason of that conviction his fitness to practise was impaired. The hearing took place by video conference on 26 and 27 March 2026. Because Fernandes was unrepresented, the HCPC’s representative applied for parts of the hearing relating to his private and family life to be held in private, and Fernandes agreed with that application. The panel, mindful of the principle of open justice, accepted legal advice and determined that any discrete part of the proceedings touching his private and family life could be heard in private under the procedure rules, while the substance of the case remained public. The panel found the conviction particular proved, found his fitness to practise impaired by reason of conviction, and moved to sanction.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel directed the Registrar to strike Fernandes from the register, the most severe sanction available to an HCPC panel, on the basis that a conviction of this nature is fundamentally incompatible with remaining a registered operating department practitioner. The HCPC applied for an interim suspension order of eighteen months to cover the time an appeal would take, arguing it was required for public protection and the public interest: without it, and with the previous interim order having ended, Fernandes would have been free to practise in the window before the striking off order took effect. The panel noted the gravity of the conviction and determined the interim suspension was necessary on both grounds. Fernandes indicated that he did not intend to appeal and did not oppose the application, leaving the striking off to take effect without an appellate challenge.

Current Status

Fernandes was struck off on 27 March 2026. He is no longer a registered operating department practitioner and cannot practise under that title in the UK while the order stands; restoration would require a fresh application years after the order and a finding that he is once again fit to practise. An eighteen-month interim suspension order covered the appeal window from the decision date. No public statement from Fernandes is recorded in the published decision beyond his indication that he would not appeal, and the name of the person he was convicted of assaulting has not been made public in the HCPC record.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The striking off order is terminal for his clinical career in the regulated profession: a conviction for a sexual offence removes the registration that the job requires, and no theatre team can employ him as an operating department practitioner while the order stands. The case illustrates how the conviction pathway works at the HCPC: the panel relies on the criminal court’s verdict rather than re-litigating the conduct, which compresses the regulatory process to the questions of impairment and sanction. It also shows the practical mechanics of an unrepresented registrant, with the regulator itself structuring the privacy protections around family-life evidence while the core outcome remained public. For Fernandes, the 2024 conviction and the 2026 striking off together permanently closed the profession for which he trained and registered.

Sources

• HCPTS, “Colin Fernandes — Final Hearing, Conduct and Competence Committee, Struck off,” March 2026. source