Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to update healthcare professional regulation.

The Government is committed to modernising the regulatory frameworks for all healthcare professionals in the United Kingdom.

As a first step, we aim to consult on secondary legislation to modernise the General Medical Council’s regulatory framework in early 2026 and to lay this legislation before Parliament in the same year. We also plan to update the governing legislation of the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Health and Care Professions Council, as well as introducing a statutory barring system for National Health Service managers in England, within the current parliamentary period.