Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

(8) the instrument is scrutinised by the Joint Committee on Statutory
Instruments and if it has been laid before Parliament, by the Merits of
Statutory Instruments Committee. 12
2.22 Not all rules and regulations which are approved by the Privy Council and take
the form of statutory instruments must be laid before Parliament. 13 Nonetheless,
even these rules and regulations still require all the formalities of a statutory
instrument. These are printing (which must be done on a specific format and
specially prepared), registration as a statutory instrument (which is undertaken by
the Privy Council), and scrutiny by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.
This scrutiny process means that it must conform fully to standard drafting rules
for statutory instruments and may be reported by the Joint Committee if they
contain errors. The Department of Health must field officials and lawyers to
respond to any requests made by the Joint Committee.
2.23 In addition, Orders approving the rules of the Health Professions Council and the
General Pharmaceutical Council, or rules and regulations of the General Dental
Council will need to be laid in Scotland if they relate to the regulation of those
professions for whom regulation is devolved to Scotland (see Part 1).
Government policy
2.24 It is recognised widely that the process described above is unduly complex and
resource intensive, and prevents the regulators from updating their powers and
functions. The Government has stated that:
The Councils are autonomous bodies who are free to make new rules
and rule changes when they identify a need, but the requirement of
Privy Council approval necessarily imposes burdens on the
Department of Health as the Department with policy responsibility and
as Privy Council advisers. Furthermore, the priority which the
Department can give the proposal will depend on available resources
and this will affect substantially the timetable for making new
regulations.
The constraints on Government resources mean that only the most
pressing issues are acted upon and the process for making these
changes takes about two years. Consequently, regulators are
frequently unable to make important changes that would allow them
to improve their performance, work less bureaucratically, reduce
costs to registrants and respond more fairly and effectively to both
public and professional concerns. The current legislative framework
12 Department of Health and DH Legal Services, Protocol for New Rules and Regulations,
and Amendments, which require Privy Council Approval in the Form of a Statutory
Instrument (Draft) (2011).
13 See, for example, Chiropractors Act 1994, ss 35 and 36, Medical Act 1983, ss 31(4A) and
(4B), 31(10) and 51, and Osteopaths Act 1993, ss 35 and 36.
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