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

My Lords, I am coming to them. As my noble friend Lady Pitkeathley pointed out, a recent report on the HPC pointed that out. The noble Earl raised the issue of state rigidity in regulation. Psychologists and psychotherapists indeed work with vulnerable people, both adults and children, often in one-to-one situations. What they do carries significant risk to patients and to the public if it is poorly done. Although we do not want to set and impose rigid demands on the professions, it is important that standards are set that protect the public. Is this a forerunner to an inevitable sequel for psychotherapists and counsellors? As I said in my opening remarks, there will be a statutory period of consultation before any further orders are laid. Legislation is not inevitable—although we currently agree with noble Lords that it is desirable. I turn to the Health Professions Council. It has a good track record in regulating a wide range of professions, many of which work in non-health settings in schools, prisons, industry and private practice. It uses the members of the professions that it regulates to provide professional expertise in regulatory functions such as the setting and approval of education and training. It makes every sense that it does that. Why would it not? It uses them in setting professional practice standards and assessing practitioners’ fitness to practise. We have consulted widely on the proposal to regulate psychologists under the Health Professions Council in both the 2005 and 2007-08 consultations. There was strong support for the regulation of psychologists through the HPC. I know that people have raised questions about the consultation, but 89 per cent supported statutory regulation of practitioner psychologists; 70 per cent agreed that psychologists and teachers working exclusively in further psychological knowledge should not be regulated; 60 per cent agreed that all seven domains should be statutorily registered by the HPC; and 60 per cent agreed that holders of BPS practising certificates who do not meet the full range of competencies for the seven domains should be eligible for registration only if they demonstrate that they meet HPC standards for safe and effective practice. The noble Earl raised the issue of threshold entry to the profession. That is a matter for the HPC to determine. It has recently publicly consulted on the threshold of entry and standards of proficiency. The outcome of the consultation will be considered at the HPC education committee meeting in May. The BPS will have been invited to respond as part of a statutory duty to consult stakeholders, so it will have had the opportunity to make representations on the issue. My honourable friend in another place has answered the letter raising the issue and clarified that with the BPS. The noble Earl also raised the issue of whether statutory regulation would narrow treatment options for patients. A balance must be struck between protecting people from misconduct and allowing creative new approaches to treatment, and we believe that the HPC can strike that balance. We are confident that it will respond sensitively to issues of well-being and, as the noble Earl put it, the art of talking therapies as much as their profession. The noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, asked about Northern Ireland and pharmacy technicians being regulated on a GB basis but psychologists on a UK basis. As the noble Lord said that he knew that I would say, the regulation of health professions is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland. On this issue, we have simply followed the wishes of the devolved Administration. They expressed their wish not to regulate pharmacy technicians in the legislation. The General Pharmaceutical Council is taking over existing arrangements of statutory regulation by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. We do not believe that there needs to be a new body for newly regulated professions; the new regulation should be taken on by existing bodies—generally, the HPC. The noble Lord and the noble Earl raised the issue of splitting professionals and asked why we were not regulating the academics. We do not believe that this is splitting the profession because the profession will still exist. What we do believe is that we should regulate only in a way that is proportionate to the risk presented to the public. Academics are engaged in research and do not present the same risks that practitioners treating individuals do. I have no doubt at all that the profession will regard itself as a profession and will continue to discuss its issues on that basis. The noble Lord also raised the question of why we were doing away with elections for professional members. We have discussed that issue in your Lordships’ House on many occasions. The council must be one that can provide effective leadership to the regulators’ work, and one which can fully engage with the profession and the public interest, as well as the NHS and the private sector and employer interest. By creating a system of independent appointments, the public and professions can be assured that people are being appointed because of their abilities, their track record, their achievements and their commitment to patient safety. In other words, they are not there as trade representatives; the registrants who have these qualities will be able to apply through a transparent process, and will not subject themselves to an election. Finally, the noble Lord asked what might happen in the future. The only thing I would say is that, if his own party wishes to influence the policy of the Conservative Party, he probably needs to have that discussion elsewhere. I beg to move. Motion agreed. House adjourned until 8.30 pm.