practices, including allowing the GMC the right to appeal sentences of its panels. In the 2000s, the GMC implemented wide-ranging reforms of its organisation and procedures. In part, such moves followed the Shipman killings. They followed a direction set by the UK government in its white paper, Trust, Assurance and Safety. In 2001, freemasonry was added to the register of interests of council members that the GMC published. One of the key changes was to reduce the size of the Council itself, and changing its composition to an equal number of medical and lay members, rather than the majority being doctors. Legislation passed in December 2002 allowed changes in the composition of the Council from the following year, with the number of members reducing from 104 to 35, increasing the proportion of lay members. In July 2011, the GMC accepted further changes that would separate its presentation of fitness-to-practise cases from their adjudication, which would become the responsibility of a new body, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service. The GMC had previously been criticised for combining these two roles in a single organization. A forthcoming reform to medical registration is the introduction of revalidation of doctors, more similar to the periodic process common in American states, in which the professional is expected to prove his or her professional development and skills. Revalidation is scheduled to start in 2012. On 16 February 2011, the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, made a Written Ministerial Statement in the Justice section entitled 'Health Care Workers, Social Workers and Social Care Workers' in which he said: Within the Command Paper:- Sir Liam Donaldson, a former chief medical officer had recently told the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust public inquiry that he had been involved in discussions about the Nursing and Midwifery Council merging with the General Medical Council, but proponents had "backed off" from the idea and the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence was created instead to share best practice. Sir Liam said the CHRE had been "reasonably successful" but it would be "worth looking at the possibility of a merger" between the GMC and NMC. Criticism Self-regulation and handling of complaints Concern has resulted from several studies that suggest that the GMC's handling of complaints appears to differ depending on race or overseas qualifications, but it has been argued that this might be due to indirect factors. However a ruling on the 18th of