Health Professions: Regulation

(asked on 16th January 2024) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of having a single regulator with different registers.


Answered by
Andrew Stephenson Portrait
Andrew Stephenson
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 19th January 2024

In 2021, the Government commissioned a review of the number of healthcare regulators, considering whether opportunities exist for simplifying the regulatory landscape. There are no current plans to reduce the number of healthcare professional regulators, but the government is committed to reforming the system of regulation for healthcare professionals in the United Kingdom, making it faster, more flexible and less adversarial for registrants.

A modernised regulatory framework is being introduced firstly for anaesthesia associates and physician associates. The Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order 2024, laid on 13 December 2023, allows for the statutory regulation of anaesthesia associates and physician associates by the General Medical Council under the new framework. The reformed regulatory framework will be rolled out to doctors, and to the professions regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Health and Care Professions Council over the next couple of years.

Reticulating Splines