Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to regulate all professions working in mental health.

In the United Kingdom, a number of mental health practitioners are subject to statutory regulation. Mental health nurses are regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council while practitioner psychologists and arts therapists are regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council. These regulatory bodies set the standards of education and behaviour that professionals must meet to practise.

Other mental health professionals that are not subject to statutory regulation can join voluntary registers accredited by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA). The PSA accredits 12 voluntary registers of mental health professionals, including counsellors and psychotherapists.

The Government keeps the professions subject to statutory regulation under review and in 2022, published the consultation, Healthcare regulation: deciding when statutory regulation is appropriate, seeking views on the criteria used to decide when regulation is necessary, and whether there are any unregulated professions that should be brought into statutory regulation. The Government will publish its response to the consultation in due course.