Policy responses and statements
Background: These draft regulations set out a proposed composition for the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator (OHPA). They provide details of the composition of the board, and requirements applying to persons appointed as a member of OHPA (including aggregate terms of office of members in respect of the Chair or Non-Executive Directors) and criteria for disqualification from appointment as a member. Introduction: 1.1 The White Paper Trust, Assurance and Safety – The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century (published in 2007) set out a substantial programme of reform to the United Kingdom’s system for the regulation of health care professionals. The White paper was published following two comprehensive reviews of the UK professional regulatory systems. Both of these reviews, Good doctors, safer patients and The regulation of the non-medical health care professions, involved extensive public consultation, which generated in excess of 1200 responses. 1.2 Chapter four of the White Paper (Tackling concerns: the national role) included a number of recommendations in relation to the adjudication of fitness to practise proceedings and specifically the need to separate investigation and prosecution from adjudication, in line with the recommendations of Dame Janet Smith in the fifth Shipman Inquiry. 1.3 Currently the health care regulators undertake investigation, prosecution and adjudication functions, with varying degrees of internal separation. The White Paper proposed that, in future, a new independent body would adjudicate in cases involving the medical profession. Other regulators may adopt this system of adjudication over time. 1.4 The Health and Social Care Act 2008 established the framework for the establishment of the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator (OHPA). This body will, in the first instance, deal with cases referred to it by the General Medical Council and, subsequently, the General Optical Council. 1.5 The Act set out the requirement for the Chair to be legally qualified and specified that regulations would be made by the Privy Council about the composition of the Board and certain other requirements aplying to the members of it. These draft Regulations are attached to this consultation document. 1.6 The Tackling Concerns Nationally Working Group was established as one of seven working groups to implement Trust, Assurance and Safety. It made a number of recommendations including the early appointment of a Chair and the need for an initial board of three members (including the Chair) to consider the future governance arrangements of the new adjudicator. It also set out the competencies it would expect board members to have. Download this consultation response as a .pdf
Copies of this response are available from:
Lesley Lockhart, Tel: 0131 225 7324 ext 608 [19 June 2009]
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