Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to bring into force section 36 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 (Social Work England).

The government remains committed to the establishment of a new bespoke regulator for the social work profession. We are developing the secondary legislation needed to enable Social Work England to operate as the regulator and are intending to consult on that in early 2018. Alongside this, we are working with the current regulator (the Health and Care Professions Council) and the social work profession to establish a timeline that will enable a safe transfer of regulatory functions to Social Work England.