Sir, if you are on one of the GDC specialist lists and are therefore expected to pay the £72 specialist list fee in addition to the 'Dentist Fee' of £576, you may (like me) still wonder what this fee is for.

Using the Freedom of Information legislation, the GDC have confirmed that since the specialist lists opened, only five 'specialist list' registrants have been suspended and two have been erased.

Clearly specialists are not likely to come to the attention of the GDC under the fitness to practise procedures so why is there any need for a specialist fee?