Health and Social Care Bill

Clause 6 currently provides that the person required to register is the, "““person who carries on a regulated activity””." This may be a natural person, a partnership or a company. For example, a company may run a chain of care homes offering nursing care, while an individual may provide nursing care and accommodation to two or three vulnerable adults. If we assume that nursing will be a regulated activity, both large and small providers of the regulated activity would require registration. In relation to primary care, Chapter 4 of our current consultation on the registration system sets out how we think the registration of primary care might work, who might be required to register and the information that the new commission might be able to draw on when making decisions. Obviously we would welcome input from noble Lords during this consultation. At the moment, we are not saying that all primary care providers will be included in the remit of the commission; we are simply committed to considering this further and are consulting on the options. The Bill as drafted does not make it an offence to work for a person or organisation providing care that is unregistered, nor does it make it an offence to deliver care under the employment of a registered person or organisation but without being registered separately. The purpose of the offence of carrying out a regulated activity without registration is to hold a person, whether an individual, a partnership or an organisation, accountable for registering with the commission. I have to say that I do not know the answer on the position of independent midwives, but I assume that they will come under the remit of the regulatory framework. However, I do not have before me the detail of how that would work, so I shall address the point and write to Members of the Committee about it. I am certain that that will be the case, but I do not have the words in my briefing to explain exactly how it will work.