Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2015 to Question 16659, whether providers of locum social workers must be registered with the Care Quality Commission.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England.

The CQC is responsible for developing and consulting on its methodology for assessing whether providers are meeting the fundamental standards, this includes making the decision on which providers are carrying out a regulated activity and therefore need to be registered with the CQC.

Only providers of a regulated activity are required to register with the CQC. The provision of staff to social care providers is not a regulated activity, therefore the providers of locum social workers are not required to register with the CQC.