Accused of Bullying at Work: How It Can Reach Your Regulator

Written and reviewed by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, MBBS, MRCS, MRCGP, Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics · Updated 5 November 2026

What counts as bullying at work

Acas, the workplace advice service, says there is no legal definition of bullying. It describes bullying as unwanted behaviour from a person or group that is an abuse or misuse of power and undermines, humiliates or causes physical or emotional harm to someone. Its examples include constantly criticising someone’s work, spreading malicious rumours and excluding someone from team events. It can be a pattern or a single incident, face to face, in emails, in calls or on social media.

Harassment is not the same thing. It has a legal meaning under the Equality Act 2010: unwanted behaviour related to a protected characteristic that has the purpose or effect of violating someone’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. If an accusation of bullying also says your behaviour was linked to race, sex, disability, age or another protected characteristic, the regulator will look at it as harassment or discrimination.

The professional standards put this in plain terms:

• GMC, Good medical practice paragraph 56: you must not abuse, discriminate against, bully or harass anyone based on their personal characteristics or for any other reason;
• NMC, Code 20.2: act with honesty and integrity, treating people fairly and without discrimination, bullying or harassment;
• GDC, standard 6.1.2: you must not bully, harass or unfairly discriminate against colleagues;
• HCPC, standard 2.8: treat colleagues in a professional manner, showing them respect and consideration.

The employer process

Acas advises that a bullying concern is raised informally first and, if that does not work, as a grievance: a formal complaint to the employer. The employer then investigates. If the investigation finds a case to answer, it can move to a disciplinary process with an outcome such as a written warning and an action plan.

Your response at the employer stage shapes what happens next. Ask for the allegations in writing, keep your own notes of dates and of what was said, and take advice from your union or defence organisation before any meeting. Our guide to a fitness to practise complaint explains how a local concern and a regulator’s concern differ.

When regulators become involved

The regulators do not take over workplace disputes. Their published guidance sets out when a bullying concern becomes theirs:

• NMC: its guidance on discrimination, bullying, harassment and victimisation says employers should act first, unless there is an immediate risk to public safety. Repeated poor behaviour that has not been resolved by local action is more likely to need regulatory action than an isolated incident that is unlikely to be repeated. Harassment, including sexual harassment, can justify action after a single incident.
• GMC: its guidance for employers on deciding whether to refer asks them to complete their own local investigation first. The test is whether the matter is serious enough to raise a question of impaired fitness to practise. A referral is likely where there is a serious departure from Good medical practice, or where its nature suggests a deep-seated issue with the doctor’s attitude or beliefs. Responsible officers discuss the threshold with their GMC employer liaison adviser.

The NMC has published a referral example: a discriminatory remark to a colleague, a local investigation that found no pattern of bullying or harassment, a final written warning and an action plan. The NMC closed the case at screening, because the employer had dealt with it in a suitable and proportionate way. It added that it may act if the conduct amounted to bullying or harassment.

Leaders carry a further duty. Good medical practice paragraph 59 says a doctor with a formal leadership or management role who is made aware of bullying or harassment must act on it. HCPC standard 7.5 asks registrants to raise concerns if they witness bullying, harassment or intimidation of a colleague.

How to respond and remediate

Whether the concern is with your employer or your regulator, the questions are the same: do you understand how your behaviour affected the colleague, have you changed it, and is it likely to happen again? The NMC Code 20.3 asks you to be aware at all times of how your behaviour can affect and influence the behaviour of other people. A response that only disputes the facts, with no reflection on the working relationship, answers none of these questions.

Evidence that helps:

• how you work with colleagues: Ensuring Teamwork and Collaboration for Healthcare Professionals;
• if the concern touches a protected characteristic: Ensuring Dignity and Non-Discrimination as Healthcare Professionals;
• the written response: Module on Insight and Module on Reflection;
• the process itself: How to Deal with a Complaint or Investigation.

Feedback from colleagues gathered after the event, and any action plan agreed with your employer and kept to, add weight. The same certificates count as CPD for appraisal, revalidation or renewal. Keeping a professional boundary with a patient or a colleague is a related question, covered in our professional boundaries hub.

Our courses after a bullying complaint, and for CPD

Courses that sit beside it

Bulk Buy covers the £79 courses: 3 for £200, 5 for £300, 10 for £500. Not sure what to take? Book a free 15-minute call or see which course do I need.

Guides that help

The CPD courses linked from this guide, Ensuring Teamwork and Collaboration for Healthcare Professionals, Module on Insight, Ensuring Dignity and Non-Discrimination as Healthcare Professionals and Module on Reflection, are by Probity & Ethics, written by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, CPD certified and accredited by The CPD Certification Service (provider no. 13197) and offered since 2020.

Questions and answers