Professional Regulation
The powers provided through this Act form part of a wider programme aiming to create a more flexible and proportionate professional regulatory framework that is better able to protect patients and the public.
	Section 60 of the Health Act 1999 provides powers to make changes to the professional regulatory landscape through secondary legislation. This enables the regulation of new professions, the establishment of new regulatory bodies and the amendment of legislation in relation to nine health and care regulatory bodies which operate across the UK.
	This section extends the scope of the existing powers in section 60 of the Health Act 1999 regulating health and social care professions by means of Orders in Council to make further changes to the professional regulation system. Any use of the extended powers will be in collaboration with the devolved administrations. Orders may require the approval of the Scottish Parliament (where they concern professions brought into regulation after the Scotland Act 1998) or the Welsh Assembly (where the order concerns social care workers). The regulation of healthcare professions is a transferred matter in Northern Ireland (NI). UK Government will continue, as it does now, to seek the agreement of the Northern Ireland Executive when legislating on matters that effect regulation in its territory. These additional powers will widen the scope of section 60 and enable the Secretary of State to make additional changes.
	The new powers will enable:
the abolition of an individual health and care professional regulatory body where the professions concerned have been deregulated or are being regulated by another body;
the removal of a profession from regulation where regulation is no longer required for the protection of the public;
the delegation of previously restricted functions to other regulatory bodies through legislation; and
the regulation of groups of workers concerned with health and care, whether or not they are generally regarded as a profession e.g. senior managers and leaders.
	Secondary legislation made using the new powers would be subject to the existing provision in Schedule 3 and section 62 of the Health Act 1999, namely, consultation and the affirmative parliamentary procedure.
	In 2017, the UK Government and the devolved administrations consulted on high-level principles for reform of professional regulation and set out their five objectives, to:
improve the protection of the public from the risk of harm from poor professional practice;
support the development of a flexible workforce that is better able to meet the challenges of delivering healthcare in the future;
deal with concerns about the performance of professionals in a more proportionate and responsive fashion;
provide greater support to regulated professionals in delivering high quality care; and
increase the efficiency of the system.
	The 2017 consultation Promoting professionalism, reforming regulation included questions relating to the provisions in the Act.4 The Government response set out the proposals that were welcomed by key stakeholders, including professional organisations, regulatory bodies and employers. 5
	The consultation response also highlighted the case for broader changes to the regulatory landscape including reducing the number of regulatory bodies. The Secretary of State further committed to reviewing the number of health and care professional regulatory bodies in the November 2020 Busting Bureaucracy policy paper.6 An independent review of the current make-up of the regulatory landscape, to review how it might be simplified to provide better public protection in a more efficient way, was carried out in 2021.
	In March 2021, the UK Government published a consultation Regulating healthcare professionals, protecting the public that sets out proposed reforms to the legislation for professional regulators in four key areas: Governance and Operating Framework; Education and Training; Registration; and Fitness to Practise. The reforms will start with legislation that will bring physician associates and anaesthesia associates into regulation under the General Medical Council7.
	In 2022, the UK Government published a further consultation Healthcare regulation: deciding when statutory regulation is appropriate 8 on the criteria on deciding which professions are subject to statutory regulation.
	This work, which builds on the work of the Law Commissions in their review of UK law relating to the regulation of healthcare professionals9 paves the way for reforms that deliver a flexible and modern system of regulation for health and care professionals across the UK.