Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to protect people experiencing mental health problems from accessing treatment from unqualified counsellors and psychotherapists, including by requiring statutory registration.

The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published in February 2016, includes the recommendation that:

“The Department of Health should consider how to introduce the regulation of psychological therapy services, which are not currently inspected unless they are provided within secondary mental health services.”

The Department is currently working with the Care Quality Commission to examine the options and possibilities for taking this recommendation forward. The Department is committed to proportionate regulation of healthcare professionals.

We are considering options for deciding the right level of regulatory oversight for professional groups following on from our Promoting Professionalism, Reforming Regulation public consultation, which closed on 23 January 2018. We expect to publish a full response to this consultation in due course.