Recommendation BRIS-70: Establish single regulatory bodies for each distinct healthcare professional group
From Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report, published 18 July 2001.
Recommendation
For each group of healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses and midwives, the professions allied to medicine, and managers) there should be one body charged with overseeing all aspects relating to the regulation of professional life: education, registration, training, CPD, revalidation and discipline. The bodies should be: for doctors, the GMC; for nurses and midwives, the new Nursing and Midwifery Council; for the professions allied to medicine, the re-formed professional body for those professions; and for senior healthcare managers, a new professional body.
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England state no delivery position (27 February 2026)
Please see Recommendation 46 (Professional standards). The new government manifesto includes a commitment to introduce professional standards for NHS managers and bring them into regulation. The department is currently exploring options for taking this work forwards. Separate professional bodies remain in place.
Site note: DHSC and NHS England's own account of progress, supplied to the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024 and printed in the Inquiry legal team's Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). It is not a finding of the Inquiry. Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Superseded”. Table row: section 6.2 No. 70, PDF page 103.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (15 May 2024)
The Government agreed with this recommendation in part.
In its January 2002 response, the Department of Health said it did not agree that the General Medial Council should act as the competent authority for medical training. The Department did not address the recommendation for a new professional body for senior healthcare managers.
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024). The review does not colour its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green; it leaves the cell uncoloured where a recommendation was rejected, where evidence of implementation was insufficient, or where steps had been taken but implementation was not yet complete. Table row: section 6.2 No. 70, PDF page 95.
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding