Recommendation BRIS-71: Establish a single body to coordinate all healthcare professional regulatory bodies
From Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report, published 18 July 2001.
Recommendation
In addition, a single body should be charged with the overall co-ordination of the various professional bodies and with integrating the various systems of regulation. It should be called the Council for the Regulation of Healthcare Professionals. (In effect, this is the body currently proposed in ‘The NHS Plan’, and referred to as the Council of Healthcare Regulators.) (See Recommendation 39.)
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England say completed (27 February 2026)
The Thirlwall Inquiry has noted action taken in response to this recommendation.
Please see Recommendation 46 (Professional standards).
The Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence was renamed the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) by virtue of Section 222 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
The PSA oversees the professional regulators, working with them to improve the way that professionals are regulated including publishing regular performance reports which assess the regulators against 18 standards. They also have powers to assess and accredit organisations who register practitioners, who are not regulated by law, and work closely with the Government by giving policy advice and encouraging research to improve regulation.
PSA promotes the health, safety and wellbeing of patients, service users and the public. It does this by improving the regulation of people who work in health and social care and running the Accredited Registers programme for roles not regulated by law and working closely with the Government by giving policy advice and encouraging research to improve regulation.
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 “Implemented – Closed”. Table row: section 6.2 No. 71, PDF page 104.
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.
The Health Professionals Council was set up in 2003, under the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002.
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 colours its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green, which it uses to mark evidence, identified by the legal team, that a recommendation has been clearly implemented. Table row: section 6.2 No. 71, PDF page 95.
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding