Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

(2) to guarantee minimum procedural requirements (such as those relating
to the procedures for hearings undertaken by Fitness to Practise Panels);
and
(3) to establish certain core requirements in the public interest (for example,
a single overarching duty for professional regulation and setting the size
and composition of Councils).
2.15 We therefore propose that the new legal framework should impose consistency
where necessary in order to achieve one or more of these aims, but otherwise
the regulators should be given greater autonomy in the exercise of their statutory
responsibilities and to adopt their own approach to regulation in the light of their
circumstances and resources.
2.16 However, drawing a clear distinction between issues where consistency is
necessary, on the one hand, and where discretion is important on the other is not
always easy. For example, the establishment of a statutory process for the
investigation of complaints could be seen to benefit the complainant and the
alleged wrongdoer, but there are also strong arguments for giving the regulators
discretion to adopt a proportionate approach to managing risk on such matters. In
a specific context, these are difficult judgments to make and we might not have
got them right. We are interested in your views on whether we have drawn the
correct line in this paper.
2.17 Moreover, our general approach to law reform identified above is subject to the
regulators being subject to an appropriate level of accountability. The ways in
which the regulators would be held to account are discussed in the rest of this
Part.
Provisional Proposal 2-1: All the existing governing legislation should be
repealed and a single Act of Parliament introduced which would provide the
legal framework for all the professional regulators.
Provisional Proposal 2-2: The new legal framework should impose
consistency across the regulators where it is necessary in order to establish
the same core functions, guarantee certain minimum procedural requirements
and establish certain core requirements in the public interest. But otherwise
the regulators should be given greater autonomy in the exercise of their
statutory responsibilities and to adopt their own approach to regulation in the
light of their circumstances and resources.
RULES AND REGULATIONS
2.18 In order to undertake their statutory functions, the regulators are given powers to
make rules and regulations which in most cases must be approved by Order of
the Privy Council. 9 These Orders are statutory instruments which do not need the
direct approval of the Queen (as opposed to Orders in Council which do require
such approval). The only exceptions are the General Social Care Council who
9 The Privy Council is a formal body that advises the Monarch in the UK on the exercise of
the Royal Prerogative, and is made up mostly of senior politicians who are or have been
members of the House of Commons or the House of Lords.
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