Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

PART 11
BUSINESS REGULATION
11.1 Health and social care regulation makes individual registrants responsible for
their standards of professional practice. In addition, some regulators have powers
to regulate businesses with the aim of ensuring that the infrastructure supports
proper standards of practice. This Part considers how commercial settings may
affect the regulatory task and how the legal framework should approach the task
of business regulation. Specifically, it covers:
(1) regulation in a commercial setting;
(2) premises regulation;
(3) register of bodies corporate;
(4) consumer complaints; and
(5) extending business regulation.
REGULATION IN A COMMERCIAL ENVIRONMENT
11.2 Some of the regulators are responsible for regulating professionals who practise
outside formal NHS structures and work primarily in commercial settings. These
settings range from small high street firms providing, for example, pharmacy or
opticians services, to multinational corporations. Some practitioners, such as
dentists, may undertake some NHS work while also undertaking private practice,
which is not subject to external regulatory apparatus such as clinical governance.
11.3 The extent to which professionals work in a commercial environment may have
an impact on how, and the frequency with which, regulation is undertaken. For
example, regulators may need to consider the particular burdens that are placed
on practitioners working in small commercial settings, such as single handed
practices. These burdens can include the duplication of information that is
required by Government, the professional regulators and other regulators. The
potential regulatory overlap in the private sector includes but is not limited to
systems regulators, such as the Care Quality Commission in England, the Care
Inspectorate, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, the Regulation and Quality
Improvement Authority in Northern Ireland and the Health Inspectorate Wales, as
well as other regulators, such as the Health and Safety Executive, Human Tissue
Authority, and Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
11.4 Some practitioners working in the commercial rather than NHS environment will
be running their own businesses. It is of course possible to be both a business
and a profession – law, accounting and surveying are all examples. However,
there can be tension. This tension may be particularly acute where the
professional is working in a business where the professional activity is incidental.
Some regulators who are responsible for significant numbers of self-employed
professionals, who operate in commercial settings, may also need to be vigilant
to the possibility of business disputes being brought to their attention spuriously
in the guise of a complaint.
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