Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 18 February 2025 to Question 29926 on Health Professions: Regulation, what recent progress he has made on setting a timetable for announcing his priorities in relation to the applicability of the five year rule by professional regulators on fitness to practise in cases which involve allegations of historic sexual abuse.

The Government has set out its intention to reform the legislative frameworks of all healthcare professional regulators, starting with the General Medical Council (GMC).

As part of this work, any legislative restrictions on regulators from being able to consider fitness to practise concerns that are more than five years old will be removed from legislation. Regulators such as the GMC will have the discretion to determine whether a concern should be investigated based on the specific details of a fitness to practise case, which may include reflections on the length of time that has elapsed since the concern was raised or occurred.

The Government is aiming to consult on a draft legislative framework for the GMC by the end of this year, and lay the legislation during this Parliament.