Michael Brendan McLaren
Introduction
Michael Brendan McLaren is a former registered nurse who worked at the Wishaw Community Mental Health Team in NHS Lanarkshire, Scotland. In March 2026 the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) erased him from its register — the regulator’s term for being struck off — after a Fitness to Practise Committee panel found that he had subjected female colleagues to sexually motivated and harassing conduct, made inappropriate sexual comments about patients, and brought a knife into the workplace. The findings were made at a hearing he did not attend; McLaren took no part in the proceedings, and no criminal charge was ever brought against him.
Background Information
Public information about McLaren is confined to his NMC determination. He was a registered nurse on the NMC register, under registration number 91H0115S, working at the Wishaw Community Mental Health Team, part of NHS Lanarkshire in Scotland. The conduct at issue dated from in or around December 2022. The NMC substantive hearing began on 10 November 2025 and ended on 4 March 2026. Beyond what appears in the determination itself, his age, training, seniority and nursing specialism are not on the public record.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Allegations. The claims in this section are findings of an NMC Fitness to Practise Committee panel, which reported substantiating them after a hearing he did not attend. They were never admitted by McLaren, never criminally charged, and never adjudicated in court. McLaren denied nothing on the record because he took no part in the proceedings; one charge (13) was found not proved.
The charges concerned McLaren’s conduct in or around December 2022 while he was employed as a registered nurse at the Wishaw Community Mental Health Team. The panel heard that he made sexual comments to two female colleagues, referred to as Colleague A and Colleague B, and placed their hands on his thigh or hip without their consent. He was also charged with making inappropriate sexual comments about patients in the team’s care.
A further group of charges involved Colleague G, a student nurse. The panel found that McLaren showed her a sexual video on his mobile phone and that he later contacted her on her personal phone. Separately, he was charged with bringing a knife into the workplace and failing to remove it after being asked to do so.
The panel found the facts proved in charges 1(a)(i)-(iii), 1(b), 1(c), 2, 3, 4(a), 4(b), 5, 6, 7(a), 7(b), 8, 9, 10(a), 10(b), 11 and 12. Charge 13, which alleged harassment of Colleague F by text message, was found not proved. The panel further concluded that the conduct relating to Colleagues A, B and G was sexually motivated and harassing. Because McLaren neither attended nor engaged with the proceedings, none of the findings rests on any admission by him; they reflect the panel’s assessment of the evidence placed before it.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The panel determined that the matters found proved amounted to misconduct and that McLaren’s fitness to practise was currently impaired on both public protection and public interest grounds. It found a pattern of sexually motivated and harassing behaviour towards female colleagues, together with deep-seated attitudinal concerns and limited insight or remorse, and concluded that the case fell within the NMC’s ‘highest risk cases’ guidance. With McLaren absent and not represented, nothing was offered on his behalf at the hearing; the findings rest entirely on the material the NMC put before the panel.
On aggravation, the panel cited McLaren’s abuse of a position of trust, the pattern of misconduct, his failure to work collaboratively with colleagues, and his failure to attend the hearing or engage with the proceedings, along with his lack of insight and lack of remorse. It identified no mitigating factors. The panel directed that McLaren be struck off the register by erasure, the most severe sanction available to it.
Current Status
The erasure decision is dated 4 March 2026. An 18-month interim suspension order was imposed to cover any appeal period, so McLaren remains barred from practising as a registered nurse in the meantime, and the order is designed to keep him out of practice while any appeal runs its course. Unless any appeal succeeds, he stays off the NMC register; the official register carries his current status.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Erasure from the NMC register ends a nurse’s ability to work as a registered nurse in the United Kingdom, closing the career McLaren had pursued at NHS Lanarkshire. The consequences for him are regulatory rather than criminal: no police investigation or prosecution is recorded, and the sanction stems solely from the panel’s findings. With the panel having identified no mitigating factors, no insight and no remorse, the determination records no circumstances pointing toward an early return to practice.
Sources
- MedicWatch, “Michael Brendan McLaren — Struck off the register”, 4 March 2026. source