Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016

22Cancellation of designation of a responsible individual

(1)The Welsh Ministers may cancel a responsible individual’s designation only on one or more of the following grounds—

(a)they have reason to believe the individual no longer satisfies the requirements of section 21(2);

(b)they have reason to believe the individual has been convicted of, or has been given a caution in respect of, a relevant offence in connection with a regulated service provided by the service provider;

(c)they are no longer satisfied that the individual is a fit and proper person to be a responsible individual (see section 9);

(d)they have reason to believe that the individual has not complied with a requirement imposed on the individual by regulations under section 28(1).

(2)In subsection (1)(b), “relevant offence” has the same meaning as in section 15.

(3)If the Welsh Ministers propose to cancel a responsible individual’s designation they must give the individual an improvement notice.

(4)An improvement notice given under subsection (3) must specify—

(a)the reason why the Welsh Ministers propose to cancel the responsible individual’s designation,

(b)either—

(i)action that they think the individual must take, or

(ii)information they think the individual must provide,

in order to satisfy them that the individual’s designation should not be cancelled, and

(c)a time limit within which the action must be taken or the information must be provided.

(5)If the Welsh Ministers are not satisfied that—

(a)action specified in an improvement notice has been taken, or

(b)information so specified has been provided,

within the time limit specified in the notice they may give a notice of cancellation.

(6)The Welsh Ministers may give a notice of cancellation of a responsible individual’s designation without taking the steps mentioned in subsections (3) to (5) if they have reasonable cause to believe that unless the designation is cancelled a person will or may be exposed to a risk of harm.

(7)A notice of cancellation must be given to—

(a)the responsible individual, and

(b)the service provider who designated the individual.

(8)An individual ceases to be designated as a responsible individual when the notice of cancellation is given to the service provider.

(9)A notice of cancellation must—

(a)give reasons for the decision,

(b)explain the right of appeal conferred by section 26,

(c)explain the requirement on the service provider to apply for variation of registration (see section 11(1)(c)), and

(d)state the time limit prescribed under section 11(2) (prescribed time limit for applying to designate a new responsible individual).

(10)In subsection (6), “harm” means abuse or impairment of—

(a)physical or mental health, or

(b)physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development,

and in a case where the harm relates to the impairment of a child’s health or development, the child’s health or development is to be compared with that which could reasonably be expected of a similar child.