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Health Care and Associated Professions (Miscellaneous Amendments and Practitioner Psychologists) Order 2009

My Lords, I speak as chair of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence, which has been mentioned. It is the body that regulates and reviews the performance of the nine bodies that are the regulators for the individual professions. I thank the Minister for explaining the order so succinctly. CHRE supports the measures and their positive impact on public protection. We very much welcome their introduction. Independent statutory regulation of practitioners, including psychologists, is very important to protect members of the public. Regulators should be independent of the Government and the professions that they regulate, so that they can make and be seen to make—that is very important—appropriate decisions in the public interest. For these reasons, regulators have been going through extensive processes to make their structures and governance more responsive to patients and the public. The HPC itself has been going through such processes. Subject to the order being confirmed tonight, I understand that the HPC intends to open registration on 1 July. CHRE welcomes this and believes that it will be welcomed also by patients and the public.