Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to regulate the (a) psychotherapy and (b) counselling professions.

The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) operates a voluntary registers programme, which provides a proportionate means of assurance for unregulated professions, that sits between employer controls and statutory regulation by setting standards for organisations holding voluntary registers for unregulated health and social care occupations.

Whilst statutory regulation is sometimes necessary where significant risks to users of services cannot be mitigated in other ways, it is not always the most proportionate means of ensuring public protection. Titles can only be protected for statutorily regulated professions.

The Government would encourage anyone accessing the services of independent psychotherapists or counsellors to establish whether a practitioner is registered with a voluntary accredited register through the PSA website. To meet the standards for PSA accreditation, an organisation must have a focus on public protection and robust processes for handling complaints against practitioners. The organisations accredited by the PSA are independent and do not fall under Government oversight, and any decisions about the practice requirements for the professions they represent are a matter for employers and organisations and their members.

Individual employers are responsible for ensuring their staff are appropriately qualified and that they keep their skills and practice up to date.