BRIS-71

Establish a single body to coordinate all healthcare professional regulatory bodies

Bristol Heart Inquiry · Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report · Issued 18 July 2001

Government responseNot tracked (historical inquiry)

DeliveryDHSC and NHS England say completed (Feb 2026)

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry 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.)

Bristol Heart Inquiry, Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report · 18 Jul 2001 Source PDF →

Government response

●No formal government response recorded

The Index has not yet recorded a verbatim government response to this recommendation.

Delivery

●DHSC and NHS England say completed · 27 Feb 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.

From: The Thirlwall Inquiry: Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025)

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.

From: The Thirlwall Inquiry: Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024)

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.

How this page is built

The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.