Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they plan to bring forward the draft Law Commission bill on medical regulation for parliamentary consideration.

This Government is grateful for the work of the Law Commissions of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in reviewing the regulation of health and (in England) social care professionals. The Law Commissions made 125 recommendations to reform the existing complex and burdensome regulatory system. The joint four United Kingdom country response to the Law Commission was published on 29 January 2015 which accepted wholly or in part the vast majority of its recommendations.

The recommendations focussed on modernising and simplifying the legislation to enable the regulators to respond more quickly to emerging risks to patient safety and deal with poor professional practice swiftly and proportionately. This Government remains committed to bringing forward legislation as soon as Parliamentary time allows. This will be a substantial Bill and it is important that Parliament has sufficient time to give it the consideration it requires.