Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing
Struck off the register
The regulator’s term: erasure
What does “struck off the register” mean?
Being struck off (the regulator calls this "erasure") removes the practitioner from the register. They are no longer permitted to practise this profession in the UK. Erasure can be reviewed after a minimum of five years, but is otherwise indefinite.
Concerning Michael Brendan McLaren, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 91H0115S).
Decision date: 4 March 2026 · Hearing started 10 November 2025 and ended 4 March 2026
In plain English
The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee found that registered nurse Michael Brendan McLaren had committed misconduct involving sexually motivated and harassing behaviour towards female colleagues at NHS Lanarkshire in 2022, and had brought a knife into the workplace. The panel found his fitness to practise was impaired and ordered that he be struck off the NMC register. An interim suspension order of 18 months was imposed to cover any appeal period.
Charges
Charges concerned conduct in or around December 2022 while employed as a registered nurse at Wishaw Community Mental Health Team, NHS Lanarkshire. They included: making sexual comments and placing colleagues' hands on his thigh/hip without their consent (Colleagues A and B); inappropriate sexual comments about patients; showing a colleague a sexual video on his mobile phone (Colleague G, a student nurse); contacting Colleague G on her personal phone; and bringing a knife into the workplace and not removing it after being asked to do so. The panel found most charges proved, including that the conduct relating to Colleagues A, B and G was sexually motivated and harassing. Charge 13 (harassment of Colleague F via text message) was not proved.
Findings
The panel found the facts in charges 1(a)(i)-(iii), 1(b), 1(c), 2, 3, 4(a), 4(b), 5, 6, 7(a), 7(b), 8, 9, 10(a), 10(b), 11 and 12 proved; charge 13 was not proved. The panel determined that the matters found proved amounted to misconduct and that Mr McLaren's fitness to practise was currently impaired on both public protection and public interest grounds. The panel found a pattern of sexually motivated and harassing behaviour towards female colleagues, deep-seated attitudinal concerns, and limited insight or remorse. It concluded that the case fell within the NMC's 'highest risk cases' guidance.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Mitigating factors
The panel determined that there were no identifiable mitigating factors in this case.
Aggravating factors
Abuse of a position of trust; pattern of misconduct; failure to work collaboratively with colleagues; failure to attend the hearing or engage with these proceedings; lack of insight; lack of remorse.
Source
All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Nursing and Midwifery Council determination linked below. MedicWatch does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
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