Professional disciplinary tribunals are not required to disregard criminal penalties when making disciplinary orders; the protective characterisation of disciplinary orders does not deny their punitive effects. Where child protection legislation creates statutory presumptions of risk, disciplinary tribunals must treat that legislation as part of the legal background and should impose conditions consistent with the statutory scheme absent justification for departing from it. The privilege against self-incrimination does not entitle a practitioner to make misleading statements to a regulatory body, though there remains doubt whether a professional obligation of candour overrides the privilege absent express statutory provision.
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