Section 223 - Functions of the Authority
1318.This section makes amendments to the 2002 Act to make changes to the functions of the Authority.
1319.Given that the Health and Care Professions Council will take on the regulation of social workers in England, the regulatory bodies which the Authority will have functions in relation to will include a regulatory body that regulates social workers in England. This necessitates a number of changes to the Authority’s functions in the 2002 Act.
1320.Subsections (1), (2), (6) and (14) amend sections 25 and 26B of, and paragraph 16 of Schedule 7 to, the 2002 Act to provide for those functions of the Authority which relate to the interests of patients or the health, safety and well-being of patients to instead relate to the interests, or the health, safety and well-being, of users of health care, users of social care in England and users of social work services in England.
1321.Subsection (3) inserts a new subsection into section 26A of the 2002 Act to empower the Secretary of State to request advice from the Authority on matters connected with the social work profession, or social care workers, in England and requires the Authority to comply with the request. Section 26A already empowers the Secretary of State, the Welsh Ministers, the Scottish Ministers and the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland to ask the Authority for advice on any matter connected with a health care profession and to require the Authority to investigate and report on any matter in relation to which it has functions. Subsection (4) imposes a new duty on the Secretary of State, the Welsh Ministers, the Scottish Ministers and the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland to pay a fee, determined by the Authority, for any advice requested, or investigations or reports commissioned, under section 26A.
1322.Under section 29 of the 2002 Act, the Authority has the power to refer to court final fitness to practise decisions taken in relation to registered professionals by the regulatory bodies, where it considers that a decision is unduly lenient or should not have been made, and where it considers that a referral would be desirable for the protection of the public. As the regulation of social workers in England is being transferred to the Health and Care Professions Council, the Authority’s powers under section 29 will extend to decisions taken in relation to social workers in England. Subsection (10) amends section 29 to provide that, when the Authority refers a decision about a social worker in England to a court, it must be referred to the High Court of Justice in England and Wales. This is to prevent decisions about social workers in England being referred to the Court of Session in Scotland or the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland, which would not be appropriate.
1323.Subsections (7) and (8) amend section 27 of the 2002 Act. Under section 27, the Authority has powers to direct regulatory bodies to make rules.
1324.The duties on the Secretary of State under this section to:
lay a draft of an order setting out directions the Authority has given requiring a regulatory body to make rules before both Houses of Parliament, and
make regulations about the procedure to be followed in relation to the giving of directions by the Authority,
are conferred instead on the Privy Council. As before, orders made under this section are subject to the affirmative resolution procedure, and regulations made under this section are subject to the negative resolution procedure.
