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Health and Social Care Bill

moved Amendment No. 132: 132: Schedule 8, page 166, line 34, leave out ““and”” The noble Lord said: In moving Amendment No. 132, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 134 to 136, 152 and 220 to 225. On the basis of the recommendations of the Hampton review on regulatory inspection and enforcement in 2005, the Government committed to abolishing the Hearing Aid Council by April 2009 and to transferring responsibility for the regulation of private hearing aid dispensers to the Health Professions Council. This group of amendments is intended to achieve that, in addition to ensuring that public hearing aid dispensers can also be regulated in the future in the same way. First, I acknowledge that it is not ideal to introduce this change into the Bill at such a late stage. The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which leads on delivering this commitment, had considered a number of mechanisms to achieve the policy aims, but it became clear that primary legislation would be needed. It made sense to use this Bill both to meet the timescale and because it already includes substantial measures to reform the system of professional regulation. In modernising the regulation of hearing aid dispensers, and allowing for future consistency between public and private hearing aid dispensers, these measures contribute to the wider programme of professional regulatory reform. I recognise that the timing is not ideal, but I hope that I am able to persuade noble Lords that the great benefits that this measure will bring are worth this disadvantage. Most importantly, this measure will provide improved protection for the hearing-impaired. For nearly 40 years, the Hearing Aid Council has done an excellent job in regulating the private hearing aid profession. I put on record the Government’s thanks for the important work that the council has done over four decades. However, it is operating under legislation that is increasingly outdated, with gaps in consumer protection. The Health Professions Council, which was established in 2001, has modern and comprehensive legislation that will provide a much more complete service to patients and consumers. For example, the Health Professions Council has extensive fitness-to-practise powers, allowing it to remove someone from the register who it finds poses a serious risk before the registrant actually causes harm. In contrast, the Hearing Aid Council must wait until harm has been done before it can take action. This measure also paves the way for the regulation of public and private dispensers on a single register with a single set of standards. Currently, hearing aid dispensers in the private sector are regulated by the Hearing Aid Council, with NHS hearing aid dispensers unregulated. Clearly, this will improve protection for the hearing-impaired. I know that this principle is close to the hearts of many noble Lords: we will be reducing the number of regulators in existence. The Health Professions Council already regulates 13 different professions, so it is well equipped to regulate one more. Finally, it is important to emphasise that both the Hearing Aid Council and the Health Professions Council fully support this move. Both organisations have worked very closely together over the past year to ensure that the transition will be as smooth as possible. Furthermore, the professional body, the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists, is very much in favour of this and has committed to continue working with both organisations during the transition from one to the other. The Royal National Institute for the Deaf also believes that its consumers will benefit from the change. Subject to the passage of the Bill, it is therefore the Government’s intention to bring forward an Order in Council later this year under the Section 60 provisions of the Health Act 1999 to allow the Health Professions Council to assume responsibility for the regulation of private hearing aid dispensers. This will require a formal 12-week consultation, followed by a debate in both Houses. The amendments and the future Section 60 order will ensure that the needs of the vulnerable are better protected under the auspices of a multi-professional statutory regulator, which has greater resources yet charges considerably smaller registrant fees. Therefore, I hope that Members of the Committee will forgive the fact that this is a late addition to the Bill and will feel able to support the amendments. I beg to move.