Janet Smith suggested the idea of student registration in the Shipman inquiry.1 It was not strictly within the remit of the inquiry, and had it been in place would have done nothing to stop the serial murderer Harold Shipman, but it was raised nonetheless.

The subsequent recommendations on medical regulation from the chief medical officer, in Good Doctors, Safer Patients, took on the baton and ran. Recommendation 23 said: “Medical students should be awarded ‘student registration’ with the General Medical Council, and medical schools should have a GMC affiliate on their staff who should operate fitness to practise systems in parallel with those in place for registered doctors.”2