Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason his Department has removed health impairment as a head of impairment in fitness to practice proceedings before professional regulatory tribunals.

The Government response to the 2021 policy consultation ‘Regulating healthcare professionals, protecting the public’ confirmed its commitment to introducing two consistent grounds for action for all healthcare professional regulators. This will provide clarity to the public, registrants, and regulators on the circumstances in which fitness to practise action can be taken. The proposed ground for action, ‘inability to provide care to a sufficient standard’, will include health concerns that have impacted or may impact a registrant’s ability to practise safely. It will ensure that regulators’ fitness to practise investigations into health matters focus on whether a health condition impairs the professional to the extent that they cannot provide care to a sufficient standard, rather than requiring regulatory action in matters which do not impede safe practise.