UK nurses and midwives who should have been banned have worked for last 12 years

The Royal College of Nursing called the error a ‘potentially dangerous regulatory failure’. Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

Nurses and midwives who should have been banned from treating patients have practised over the last 12 years because of “potentially dangerous” failings by a medical regulator.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has admitted that its “completely and utterly unacceptable” mistakes meant it failed to protect the public from about 15 professionals whom it should have banned from ever working in healthcare in the UK because they had broken the law.