Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

the Health Professions Council. 10 The Government has also announced that it will
consult on a change to the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Constitution Order to
reduce the size of the Council. 11
4.27 In the past the regulators were seen sometimes to be partial to the interests of
professionals because they formed a majority on their General Councils. The
White Paper Trust, Assurance and Safety proposed to address this by ensuring
that registrants do not form a majority. 12 The constitution orders for all the
regulators now prescribe equal numbers of lay and professional members. The
exception is the Pharmacy Order 2010 where it is left open as to the balance of
lay and professional members, although the power has been exercised so that
there are equal numbers. 13
4.28 In addition, the Health and Social Care Act 2008 enables orders to be made
under section 60 of the Health Act 1999 to impose a requirement that a majority
of Council members must be lay members. 14 However, this power has never
been used. Instead, most of the governing legislation continues to establish a
prohibition on the use of constitution orders to establishing a lay majority. 15
4.29 The orders for the regulators also set a quorum for Council meetings. Table 4
below summarises the size, composition and quorum requirements for each
General Council.
Registrant
members
57
Lay Members Quorum
GCC 7 7 8
GDC 12 12 13
GMC 12 12 14
GOC 6 6 7
GOsC 7 7 8
GPhC 7 7 8
HPC 10 10 11
NMC 7 7 8
Table 4: Size, composition and quorum requirements for each General Council
10
Department of Health, Proposed Government Response to CHRE’s Report ‘Board Size
and Effectiveness’ (2011) (letter).
11 Written Ministerial Statement, Hansard (HC), 26 January 2012, vol 539, col 25WS.
12
Trust, Assurance and Safety – The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21 Century
(2007) Cm 7013, para 1.9.
13 Pharmacy Order 2010, SI 2010 No 231, sch 1 para 2.
14 Health and Social Care Act 2008, sch 8, para 5(3).
15 See, for example, Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001, SI 2002 No 253, sch 1 para 1B(2).