17th June 2025: Dr Sarah Benn’s submission to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal today prior to their decision on what sanction to impose on her

This case is all about my attitude to the expectation that a doctor should uphold the law in order to maintain public trust and the reputation of the profession. This I have done for 52 years of my life, and I have explained in great detail the reasons why I felt that the exceptional circumstances of the CE have compelled me in the last 6 years to break the law as an act of desperation and necessity.

I have been under investigation by the GMC since I self-referred after being arrested during climate protest in 2019, the year that Parliament declared a CE- ‘Emergency’ being the crucial word. For context, between then and now, the UK has passed two pieces of legislation aimed at shutting down or severely restricting protest, particularly by climate activists. These laws are the Police Crime sentencing and Courts Act of 2022, and the Public Order Act 2023. 

As one GMC case was closed, another was opened, although no restrictions were ever placed on my clinical practice which I continued for another 3 years until stopping medical work in 2022. I decided at that point that I wished, as do many doctors retiring from clinical practice, to remain a registered doctor, and I still do, because I believe it gives me a louder voice to say what needs to be said about the extreme health threat that is the CE. That’s why I’m back here in Manchester, defending my position…not for me, but for the ability to continue speaking out as effectively possible for all those affected now by climate breakdown,  the many many more who will be, and other doctors who have, or may be driven in the future to act out of care for life. So that’s why we’re here, again.

When MPT decided on my suspension from the register as the appropriate sanction, over a year ago, the rationale given was that though ‘the signs (were not) encouraging’’, my impaired FTP was in principle easily remediable, by simply avoiding any further involvement in climate protest that broke the law, and tribunal wished to give me time to reflect and remediate accordingly.

The tribunal has correctly ascertained, that my position is completely unchanged. Since my imprisonment for breaking a civil injunction by protesting at Kingsbury oil terminal in 2022, I have lived the majority of days as a law-abiding member of the community, because that’s how I want to live my life…not breaking the law and being in conflict with the legal system. But the circumstances that led me to break the law have not gone away, in fact only intensified, and so I’m afraid that remediation is not such a simple matter. I know there is no requirement to incriminate myself, but I have been honest throughout this process and will continue to be so. The GMC is well aware, though you may not be, that I have been involved in other nonviolent climate protest since first breaking the injunction at Kingsbury in 2022, and I have a crown court jury trial due to start in February 2027 for public nuisance as a result of one such action. I was also  arrested, charged and tried at Westminster Magistrates’ court in September 2023 for failure to comply with Section 12 of the Public Order Act when taking action with Just Stop Oil. I freely admitted what I had done and why (it won’t surprise you to know that this was nonviolent action to highlight the CE and government inaction), but was found NG due to police not having correctly imposed the Section 12. Happily for me, not every arrest for climate protest has resulted in a charge, not every charge in a trial, and not every trial in a conviction. I have however kept the GMC informed throughout, and at the earliest opportunity.

Therefore, I agree with the GMC that according to the Sanctions guidance ( Sanctions guidance – MPTS ) , given that you have found my FTP to be impaired, my further suspension with subsequent review in respect of the new matter does fit with Sanctions guidance for all the reasons laid out by the GMC. However, when incorporating the review element, it does not. Referring to Para 97 (a) of the Sanctions guidance…this states that suspension is appropriate when misconduct is not ‘ so difficult to remediate’  and indeed counsel for the GMC has said this is something I could decide for myself, to simply refrain from any protest which breaks the law. It’s not that simple for me, as I have explained repeatedly.

Para 97 also states that suspension may be appropriate if:

Para 97 (e) -there is no evidence that remediation is unlikely to be successful because eg. a doctor’s unwillingness to engage. I am not prepared to engage in remediation when that means accepting I have done something fundamentally against the tenets of the profession and undertake to never do so again

Para 97 (f) -there is no evidence of repetition of similar behaviour. I have just spoken explicitly about this. The evidence is actually for the opposite.

Para 97 (g) -tribunal is satisfied that the doctor shows insight and does not pose a risk of repeating behaviour.

So further suspension would serve absolutely no purpose, send a confusing message to all, and use up a shed load of time, energy and resources by compelling me, the GMC, and three new tribunal members to go through the same dance again in however many months’ time. If suspension is to be your decision then I will say quite clearly now that I will not be engaging in further proceedings.

Yet nor do I suggest your decision be to erase me from the register. Not because of any impact on me, although I can assure you it will hurt, but because there is an alternative for you, either collectively or individually, albeit an extraordinary one. A year ago I suggested that tribunal members could decide to take no action against me- an option available when ‘’exceptional’’ circumstances apply, those circumstances being unusual, special or uncommon. Paragraph 70 of the sanctions guidance suggests such cases are rare, I felt mine was such a case. Contrary to Mr Lodge’s position, I still feel mine is such a case.

I said at that time ‘’returning to what constitutes exceptional, I don’t think it is often that a United Nations Rapporteur feels minded to make a special statement about a ‘triple planetary emergency’; a statement of concern about cases such as mine that may represent breach of a binding obligation under an international treaty if professional sanctions are applied.’’ I was referring to when Michel Forst UN Special Rapporteur for Environmental Defenders made his declaration of concern immediately before and in relation to my April 2024 hearing. I asked ‘’Has that happened before? Indeed has a doctor been sanctioned before for undertaking action for a matter of conscience with the same or similar nexus? If not, then I contend that this is such an exceptional case’’

Now, this option of ‘take no action’ is not available to you, because I am currently suspended, and a definitive decision must be made on the status of that suspension- to allow it to elapse, with my return to the register, to continue it, or to erase me from the register. Allowing my return to the register seems likely an unpalatable option for you, given the new matter for which a period of suspension has been suggested as proportionate. A period of suspension could be imposed in response to the new matter- to send a message to me and the public and the profession, and to test out my undertaking to not participate any further in any kind of campaigning or protest against animal experimentation that breaks the law. As for the review matter, nothing is going to change and you will be faced with the same situation yet again with my lack of regret, remediation and insight once again.

I understand that you will view matters in the round however. I still suggest that taking no new further action against me, in the review matter is possible….viewing the situation through the lens of extraordinary circumstance- that being the ongoing worsening harm to life and health from the CC and the threat to the fabric of society, trust in the profession and reputation of doctors and medical institutions from climate breakdown.

Make no mistake, when the ocean current that maintains conditions favourable to growing food in the UK collapses, and supermarket shelves empty overnight, and our infrastructure fails due to extreme heat and hospitals are overwhelmed with the casualties of extreme weather events, and billions are on the move globally to escape even worse conditions elsewhere, then societal breakdown will not be far behind. Then there’ll be an awful lot of very angry people, most especially our young people who will be very very angry and just will not understand why the grownups saw what was coming and did so little, and expended so much energy instead on shutting down the voices trying to sound the alarm.

It would be perfectly possible, even if politically uncomfortable, for the GMC to rethink the way that doctors like myself and the two other doctors who have been suspended for similar actions are dealt with. To acknowledge and explain why they chose not to condemn us for breaking the law (most especially the unjust laws such as private injunctions forbidding peaceful protest) in these exceptional circumstances, given that we have been punished by the law already, and have not benefited in any way from our actions, and there is absolutely no impact on patient safety. To use their voice to tell the truth…’this is a medical emergency’, and actually behave like that really is the case, and not just a convenient soundbite. To use their influence and time and resources in addressing this emergency in whatever way they can, instead of investing them in the process in which we have all been embroiled this week.

If this is all too difficult and complex to reach agreement on in the time available, my final alternative suggestion is very simple. You could, individually or collectively, simply decline to take any further part in my case, to just withdraw. To refuse to be complicit with a process that is just not fit for this purpose, was never designed for this purpose, and urgently needs to be rethought. You could just force a pause, some conversation, some application of intelligence, leadership, creative thought, to somehow work through to a better solution that will bear scrutiny with time. To work out how to deal better with someone like myself, and others who are coming down the pipeline, who have been punished by the law for nonviolent actions of conscience driven by care and compassion for all life on Earth, and future generations. There is no gun to any of your heads, you can choose, you don’t have to follow a flow chart because you are just doing your job. You have a voice which could be very very loud, much louder than mine is currently, and without doing anything that breaks the law yourselves, a voice that shouts ‘’STOP, let’s think for a minute, our children’s future is running away through cracks in the pavement, let’s do something about it’’.

To close, I’ll just say exactly what I said a year ago to the members of my first MPTS:

Whatever you decide, I beseech everyone in this room to ask yourself honestly- do I personally know enough about the climate emergency and how urgent it is? Given that this previously well-performing and conformist doctor is so driven by it that she’s gone to prison, that she’s standing here in front of a tribunal today, do I know enough? And if not, to find out more. If that leads you to similar conclusions to mine then please, you could

  -talk about it with whoever will listen

  -do whatever you can in your own life to reduce your Carbon impact, lead by example (as an aside, anyone can stop flying/eat vegan/stop buying stuff) If you acknowledge the CE and the danger to health and life, have you contacted your MP? (many people who say they support my aims but not my actions and that I should stick to legal democratic means have not even done this tiny thing themselves)

  -use your voice and influence to stand up for the vulnerable, the children in the global South dying in floods and from famine due to drought, the children yet to be born.

Please do something, actually everything, everything you can. This is not about me. This is about the systematic ongoing destruction of the lives of those yet to be born, sentencing them to short lives of appalling physical and mental suffering, and the torment of watching everything getting worse and worse and worse because we’ve tipped Earth’s life support system over the edge and the grownups stood by and let it happen. Let it happen because it just felt too difficult to face up to, too complicated, and too uncomfortable to contemplate making a few sacrifices for their children’s future.