Recommendation BRIS-73: Grant Council powers to enforce good regulation principles and consistent professional body behaviour
From Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report, published 18 July 2001.
Recommendation
The Council for the Regulation of Healthcare Professionals should have formal powers to require bodies which regulate the separate groups of healthcare professionals to conform to principles of good regulation. It should act as a source of guidance and of good practice. It should seek to ensure that in practice the bodies which regulate healthcare professionals behave in a consistent and broadly similar manner.
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England say completed (27 February 2026)
Please see Recommendation 46, 69/70 (Professional standards); 71 (Professional Standards Authority).
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. 73, PDF page 104-105.
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 its January 2002 response, the Department of Health said the Council would be expected to respect the independence of the regulatory bodies in exercising these powers to allow them the maximum opportunity to act voluntarily.
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 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. 73, PDF page 96.
Who has spoken
- DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding