Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

Council and Care Quality Commission have published a memorandum of
understanding in an attempt to provide clarity and avoid overlap. Among other
matters, this provides that in the case of a sole trader the Council is identified as
the lead body, while the Care Quality Commission will track trends in General
Dental Council complaints as part of the bigger picture. 36
Provisional view
11.38 Any extension of business regulation, depending on how it was implemented,
could have significant resource implications not only for the regulators
themselves (and passed on to registrants) but also for businesses in the form of
information and inspection requirements. Businesses are of course subject to a
lot of other rules including on the sale and supply of goods and services.
Moreover, businesses require certainty on matters such as regulation. We
therefore do not think it is appropriate to give the regulators powers themselves
to implement any form of business regulation if they wish to do so.
11.39 But we can see that some flexibility in the legal framework would be desirable.
There may be benefits in allowing a small number of the regulators to develop
new systems of business regulation, depending on the likely impact on business
and whether any such system is necessary in the public interest. In our view, this
is a matter that should rest with the Government. We therefore provisionally
propose that the Government should be given a regulation-making power to
extend any of the powers of the General Pharmaceutical Council or the General
Optical Council to another regulator.
Provisional Proposal 11-6: The Government should be given a regulationmaking
power to extend to any regulator the powers given to the General
Pharmaceutical Council or the General Optical Council to regulate
businesses.
36 General Dental Council and Care Quality Commission, Memorandum of Understanding
Between the General Dental Council and Care Quality Commission (2010).
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