Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of making regulations under Section 28 of the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002 to provide regulatory oversight of the General Medical Council and the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.

The Department has not made any recent such assessment. The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) oversees the ten statutory bodies that regulate healthcare professionals in the United Kingdom and social workers in England.

It scrutinises the work of the regulatory bodies by monitoring and reporting on their performance against its Standards of Good Regulation; auditing decisions made during investigations into complaints about registrants’ practise; and making referrals or appeals to the relevant court if it considers that a final fitness to practise decision is insufficient to protect the public.

The PSA can use powers under Section 29 of the Act to refer final fitness to practise panel decisions to court where it believes the decision was insufficient to protect the public, maintain public confidence in the profession and/or maintain proper professional standards.