Cost effectiveness and efficiency review of the health professional regulators

Why did we do this work?

In 2011 we were asked by the Secretary of State to advise on the cost effectiveness and efficiency of the health professional regulators. This issue was highlighted in the Government’s Command Paper on health professional regulation, which stated: 'Some regulators have leaner and more businesslike approaches to aspects of their work. Some make greater use of legal advice in their fitness to practise proceedings….. These variations partly reflect the different legal frameworks for each of the regulators, but there is likely to be scope for significantly greater efficiency in all the regulatory bodies.' 

We were asked to:

• Review the scope for improving the cost efficiency and effectiveness of each regulator
• Identify where significant cost reductions could be made over the next three years
• Set out advice on the priority of the reforms needs to deliver greater cost effectiveness and efficiency across the regulatory bodies. 

We submitted our advice in November 2012. Supporting analysis from the Centre for Health Service Economics and Organisation is published alongside our final report and our summary assessment of regulators' proposals for changes to their legislation through a Section 60 order.

Our recommendations

Our recommendations focus on good practice for regulators in demonstrating cost-effective and efficient working. We advise the Department of Health to proceed with a section 60 order (or changes to primary legislation) to allow for the adoption of good practice more widely across regulatory bodies. We also recommend that this exercise is repeated in two years’ time, to maintain the focus on cost-efficient operations and to allow the impact of current improvement activities to be evaluated. Finally, we have identified some issues that may be usefully addressed by the Law Commission simplification review and draft legislation.