Sania Manjlai

Introduction

Sania Manjlai is a practitioner psychologist who was suspended from the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register for twelve months in February 2026 after a Conduct and Competence Committee panel found her fitness to practise impaired by misconduct. The panel found that between approximately November 2019 and March 2020 she practised as a psychologist while unregistered with the HCPC, that her curriculum vitae misrepresented her accreditations and experience — including a claim that she had co-managed over 60 therapists on the Grenfell Tower Project when this was not the case, her role having been as a trainee psychologist and/or student counsellor — and that she wrote Medico-Legal Reports on 21 immigration detention cases submitted to the Home Office while not registered or qualified to do so. She admitted the core particulars at the hearing and gave oral evidence.

Background Information

The HCPC learned of the case on 12 March 2020, when AS, an intelligence analyst at the Home Office, made a referral alleging that since around November 2019 Manjlai had been visiting foreign nationals in immigration detention centres and writing Medico-Legal Reports for submission to the Home Office in which she claimed to be a Counselling Psychologist registered with the HCPC. She was not: register checks showed she did not apply to join the register until February 2020, and only became eligible after completing her university doctorate in January 2020, registering on 6 March 2020. Examination of CVs appended to the reports also showed claims of work as a Counselling Therapist on the Grenfell Tower Project across 2017-2019, during which she held no HCPC registration and was not entitled to the protected title.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Suspended for unregistered practice and CV dishonesty. Particulars 1, 2(a), 3 and 4 were admitted; the panel resolved the contested particulars on the evidence, finding the CV claim about the Grenfell role misrepresented her experience and that her conduct was dishonest. The findings rest on the civil standard.

The particulars alleged that from around April 2017 to March 2020 her CV stated she had undertaken work as a Counselling Psychologist from September 2017 to April 2019 while not registered, and that she co-managed over 60 therapists for the Grenfell Tower Project when this was not the case and/or her role was as a trainee psychologist and/or student counsellor. Between October and December 2019 she completed visits to individuals held in immigration detention centres and wrote Medico-Legal reports, relating to 21 cases set out in a schedule, submitted to the Home Office while unregistered and/or not qualified to write them. When she registered on 6 March 2020 she did not tell the HCPC she had practised unregistered. In cross-examination she accepted she may have worked outside her scope of practice; in sanction submissions she acknowledged that her dishonesty had not been minor and had the effect of undermining trust in the profession, and that she had opportunities to prevent it. She also told the panel she accepted the Grenfell Tower disaster remains a national tragedy and she ought to have been even more scrupulous.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel’s sanction decision acknowledged her extensive engagement with the process, her acceptance of responsibility, and her six years inside the fitness to practise system by the time of the hearing. It found, however, that her demonstration of reflection and the development of insight was lacking when measured against the seriousness of the misconduct, and that while she had reflected to a degree and provided some evidence of remediation, she had yet to gain full insight. It imposed a suspension order of twelve months, to be reviewed again before expiry, with an interim suspension order of eighteen months covering any appeal period. The reviewing panel was invited to expect her attendance and an update on how she had dealt with the findings, while remaining free to decide the matter afresh under the Health Professions Order 2001.

Current Status

Manjlai is suspended from the register for twelve months from the date the order came into effect, with the review built in before expiry. She cannot use any HCPC-protected practitioner psychologist title while the order stands. The findings leave on the public record a sustained dishonesty determination centring on the Grenfell claim and the unregistered detention-centre work, alongside her own admissions about the effect of the misconduct on public trust in protected titles. The decision credits that no specific harm was found to have been caused, while recording her acceptance that there was a risk of harm. Her route back runs through the review, where the next panel will weigh the insight it found lacking at the hearing.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The case sits at the junction of three failures the HCPC treats as a single pattern: practising under a protected title without registration, inflating credentials toward the most recognisable trauma workload in recent British memory, and selling medico-legal opinion to a government department on cases affecting people’s liberty. The Home Office referral shows the detection pathway — the department’s own intelligence function audited who was writing its detention reports and found an unregistered writer claiming a registered title. The panel’s insight finding, made despite six years of engagement and partial admissions, signals the regulator’s position that CV dishonesty in psychological practice cannot be remediated by process alone. For detention-sector commissioning, the decision documents that 21 Home Office reports rested on a writer who was neither registered nor qualified when she wrote them.

Sources

• HCPTS, “Sania Manjlai — Final Hearing, Conduct and Competence Committee, Suspended,” February 2026. source