National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002

[F1 25E Section 25D: interpretation U.K.

(1) This section applies for the purposes of section 25D.

(2) “Voluntary register” means a register of persons in which a person is not required by an enactment to be registered in order to be entitled to—

(a) use a title,

(b) practise as a member of a profession,

(c) engage in work that involves the provision of health care,

(d) engage in work of a description given in section 60(2ZC) of the Health Act 1999 (social care work in England), or

(e) participate in studies that come within section 25D(2) or (3).

(3) Where an enactment imposes a requirement of that kind which applies to part only of the United Kingdom, a register is to be regarded as a voluntary register in so far as it applies to any part of the United Kingdom to which the requirement does not apply.

(4) The reference in subsection (2) to an enactment does not include a reference to an enactment in so far as it imposes a requirement of that kind which applies—

(a) only to work or practice of a particular kind, and

(b) only when work or practice of that kind is engaged in for particular purposes.

(5) In subsections (2) to (4), “enactment” means an enactment contained in, or in an instrument made under—

(a) an Act of Parliament,

(b) an Act of the Scottish Parliament,

(c) an Act or Measure of the National Assembly for Wales, or

(d) Northern Ireland legislation.

(6) “Unregulated health professional” means a member of a profession—

(a) which is concerned with the physical or mental health of individuals, but

(b) to which section 60(2) of the Health Act 1999 does not apply.

(7) “Unregulated health care worker” means a person engaged in work which—

(a) involves the provision of health care, but

(b) is not work which may be engaged in only by members of a profession.

(8) In subsections (2) and (7), “health care” includes—

(a) all forms of health care for individuals, whether relating to physical or mental health, and

(b) procedures that are similar to forms of medical or surgical care but are not provided in connection with a medical condition.

(9) “Unregulated social care worker in England” means a person engaged in social care work in England within the meaning of section 60 of the Health Act 1999.

(10) But a person is not to be regarded as being (or having been) engaged in work as an unregulated social care worker merely because the person is (or has been) participating in a course of the description given in subsection (2ZC)(o) of that section (social work courses).

(11) “The social work profession in England” has the meaning given in that section.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Ss. 25D-25F inserted (1.12.2012) by Health and Social Care Act 2012 (c. 7), ss. 228, 306(4); S.I. 2012/2657, art. 2(3)