Law Commission review of regulation

We have welcomed proposals by the Law Commission to review the existing complex legislative framework for the regulation of health care professionals.

In our formal response, we have strongly supported the review’s aim to create a new legal framework which enables regulation to adapt and to provide responsive and flexible systems to protect public safety and promote high standards in professional practise.

We applied six high level principles to the development of our response:

  1. patients and public protection should be the foundation for what regulators do
  2. the core functions within professional regulation should be maintained – with each regulator responsible for holding registers, setting standards for entry and remaining on the register, and  taking action when a registrant’s fitness to practise might be impaired
  3. regulators must remain independent of government
  4. while clear accountability is required, government intervention should not be seen as a proxy for parliamentary accountability, but nor should regulators be protected through their independence from urgent intervention when required
  5. the legislative framework should support consistent outcomes between regulators
  6. legislation should be explicit about the purpose and role of Government, the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE), Councils and the executives of Councils 

We have not sought to answer in detail each of the consultation questions. Rather, our response covers key areas of interest, including governance and accountability models; registers and guidance; fitness to practise impairment, investigation, and adjudication; and the role of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE).

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