The Medical Council will be looking into allegations made about Adrian Vella, the doctor of Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.

Dr Vella was arrested in November on the suspicion that he was passing Mr Fenech messages from the prime minister's former chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Mr Fenech is understood to have told police that the doctor was covertly passing him messages urging him to keep quiet. 

Dr Vella is known to be close to Mr Schembri and was the personal doctor of Mr Fenech's grandfather, Tumas Fenech. 

Asked whether, as the entity responsible for ensuring medical ethics, it was investigating Dr Vella, the council said it had discussed the doctor during a scheduled meeting on December 4. This was the first opportunity the council had to discuss the issue.

On the day, it had agreed to ask the police commissioner for all the necessary information in order to “establish the facts”.

Once it has these in hand, it will then be able to take the necessary action allowed by the Healthcare Professionals Act.

The Medical Council did not reply to questions about its previous investigations of Dr Vella, concerning other, unrelated issues.