Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

5.14 As noted in Part 4, some of the governing legislation places responsibility directly
on the Registrar, rather than the General Council, for certain functions relating to
registration. For example, the Registrar of the General Medical Council is
required to keep the register correct, erase the names of certain registrants (for
example, those who have died) and make any other necessary alterations to
“registered particulars” such as addresses and qualifications. 9 In some cases the
governing legislation gives the Registrar significant powers which impact directly
on the registrant’s livelihood, such as decisions to remove from the register those
with unsatisfactory continued professional development or to restore to the
register those who have been removed as a result of a fraudulently procured or
incorrect entry. 10 In practice, the powers vested in the Registrar will be delegated
to others in the organisation, although there may be some important decisions –
including those which impact directly on the registrant’s livelihood – where the
Registrar may wish to take personal and direct responsibility. However, the ability
of the Registrar to be directly involved in decisions will vary between the
regulators according to the number of registrants and/or cases.
5.15 Not all of the legislation places responsibility directly on the Registrar for the
establishment and maintenance of the register. One such exception is the
Opticians Act 1989 which in several places gives direct responsibility for
maintaining the register to the General Council and establishes a Registration
Committee to advise the Council on matters relating to registration. 11 However, in
practice the General Council delegates its powers to the Registrar.
Provisional view
5.16 To some extent the existing structure – whereby each Council is required to
appoint a Registrar who is given direct statutory responsibility for certain tasks
relating to registration – is a historic feature of the legal framework. It appears to
assume that the Council and the organisation are one and the same, rather than
a board-like structure where the Council sets over-arching strategy which is
implemented by the executive (see Part 4).
5.17 The main advantage of a legal structure which requires each Council to appoint a
Registrar is that it creates clear accountability for maintaining and establishing a
register. However, there are alternative and more efficient ways in which the
regulators could discharge this function, while also retaining clear lines of
accountability. These might include delegating this function internally to other
officials or a committee, or to an external organisation with the experience and
technical expertise in the administration and maintenance of registers (see Part
4). Moreover, it is not obvious why the regulators are required to appoint an office
holder directly charged with maintaining the register but are not required to
appoint an office holder for its other functions, such as setting standards and
maintaining a fitness to practise system. We provisionally propose that each
regulator should have the ability to appoint a Registrar if they wish to do so. This
would give the regulators flexibility to determine their own arrangements for
establishing and maintaining the register.
9 Medical Act 1983, s 30(4).
10 See, for example, Pharmacy Order 2010, SI 2010 No 231, arts 28(3), 29(3) and 43(8).
11 Opticians Act 1989, ss 5 and 7.
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