Consultation outcome

Privacy notice: regulating anaesthesia associates and physician associates

Updated 16 September 2024

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

Summary of initiative or policy

Strengthening the future NHS workforce remains one of the government’s top priorities. Anaesthesia associates (AAs) and physician associates (PAs) are already a valued and integral part of the multi-disciplinary healthcare team, but they have the potential to make an even greater contribution. Regulating these professions will help to increase the contribution AAs and PAs can make to the United Kingdom’s (UK) healthcare, while keeping patients safe.

In 2019, the government asked the General Medical Council (GMC), which regulates medical practitioners (doctors), to regulate AAs and PAs. The GMC is best placed to regulate AAs and PAs as they form part of the medical team and are trained to the medical model. Regulation also paves the way for broadening their scope of practice, for example requesting ionising radiation where local governance allows and, in the future, the possibility of being able to prescribe.

The department, on behalf of the UK government and the devolved legislatures, is now at the point of seeking views on the draft legislative provisions that will give the GMC the necessary powers and duties to bring AAs and PAs into regulation.

We are introducing regulation for AAs and PAs with the GMC under a new legislative framework - the Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order (AAPAO) - that will also form the basis of future reforms to the regulatory frameworks for the GMC’s regulation of medical practitioners (doctors), and also the other 8 healthcare regulators that register healthcare professionals in the UK, as part of the department’s broader regulatory reform programme.

The current UK model of regulation for healthcare professionals is rigid, complex and needs to change to better protect patients, support our health services and to help the workforce meet future challenges.

One of the key elements of our reform programme will be the introduction of a modern, fit for purpose regulatory system, which we will achieve by updating the legislative frameworks for each of the 9 healthcare professional regulators.

The statutory healthcare regulators are the:

• General Chiropractic Council (GCC)
• General Dental Council (GDC)
• General Medical Council (GMC)
• General Optical Council (GOC)
• General Osteopathic Council (GOsC)
• General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
• Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
• Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI)

The reforms span the 4 four key areas of regulation:

• the governance and operating framework

• education and training

• registration

• fitness to practise

In particular, we will provide each regulator with greater autonomy to set out the details of their regulatory procedures in legislation that they publish themselves, called rules. Regulators will be required to consult before making their rules but will not need to secure the approval of Parliament or the Privy Council. This will give them increased flexibility to rapidly adapt their processes and procedures to changing requirements.

Data controller

The Department of Health and Social Care.

What personal data we collect

People responding to this consultation are asked to provide their name and email address.

Individuals (that is those who are not responding on behalf of an organisation) are also asked to confirm their country of residence, whether they are a healthcare professional and, if so, what their healthcare job role is.

How we use your data (purposes)

The information described above will be collected as part of the online survey response to this consultation.

Names are collected to correctly identify individual respondents during analysis. Additionally, respondents’ names, along with their email addresses, are collected with the aim of allowing the department, if respondents give their permission, to contact them about their response and/or to notify them of any further consultations or policy announcements related to this consultation.

Data about respondents’ job role location or their country of residence will be used in the analysis of the consultation to help the department understand how people from different groups respond to the draft legislation and to ensure that the consultation reaches a diverse cross-section of respondents.

Legal basis for processing personal data

Under Article 6 of the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

Article 6 (e) - Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.

Data processors and other recipients of personal data

Personal data will not be passed to third parties.

International data transfers and storage location(s)

Personal data received will be stored in the UK by the department of Health and Social Care.

Retention and disposal policy

Personal data shall be retained for no longer than 6 months following the closure of the consultation in May 2023.

How we keep your data secure

Personal data held by the department is stored securely on our records management system and shared only between DHSC employees linked to this project.

Your rights as a data subject

By law, data subjects have a number of rights, and this processing does not take away or reduce these rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 applies.

These rights are:

1. The right to get copies of information - individuals have the right to ask for a copy of any information about them that is used.

2. The right to get information corrected - individuals have the right to ask for any information held about them that they think is inaccurate, to be corrected.

3. The right to limit how the information is used - individuals have the right to ask for any of the information held about them to be restricted, for example, if they think inaccurate information is being used.

4. The right to object to the information being used - individuals can ask for any information held about them to not be used. However, this is not an absolute right, and continued use of the information may be necessary, with individuals being advised if this is the case.

5. The right to get information deleted - this is not an absolute right, and continued use of the information may be necessary, with individuals being advised if this is the case.

Comments or complaints

Anyone unhappy or wishing to complain about how personal data is used as part of this programme, should contact data_protection@dhsc.gov.uk in the first instance or write to:

Data Protection Officer
1st Floor North
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0EU

Anyone who is still not satisfied can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Their website address is www.ico.org.uk and their postal address is:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Automated decision making or profiling

No decision will be made about individuals solely based on automated decision making (where a decision is taken about them using an electronic system without human involvement) which has a significant impact on them.

Changes to this policy

This privacy notice is kept under regular review, and new versions will be available on our privacy notice page on our website. This privacy notice was last updated on 17 February 2023.