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Draft Enforcement Guidance: consultation document

Published on: 18 December 2012

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This is our consultation on draft guidance which sets out Monitor's general approach to exercising our enforcement powers in relation to potential and actual breaches of the licence and other regulatory obligations. The consultation closed on 11 February 2013.

 

Download - Draft Enforcement Guidance: consultation document - (962.19 KB)

About the Enforcement Guidance

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 (the Act) makes changes to the way providers of NHS health care services will be regulated, and gives Monitor new duties and powers.

Monitor's enforcement guidance explains the action we can take to require compliance with the provider licence and other regulatory obligations on providers, and the process we will follow to take action. It sets out the proposed process for prioritising issues, deciding on the action to take and seeking input from stakeholders on our proposed actions.

We have been consulting on the general approach that Monitor proposes to take to using its enforcement and competition law powers over health care providers. Parts of it apply to others who may be required to supply Monitor with information.

The draft guidance contains the following chapters:

  • Chapter 2 explains how Monitor is likely to decide whether to take action, and what kind of action we might decide to take.
  • Chapter 3 is about enforcement actions and explains the factors Monitor intends to take into account when deciding which, if any, discretionary requirements to impose or what, if any, enforcement undertakings we will accept. This chapter also covers the matters Monitor may take into account when imposing a variable monetary penalty.
  • Chapter 4 describes the processes that Monitor proposes to follow if we decide to investigate formally a potential breach. This includes the procedures for gathering information, the information that parties may receive about the investigation process, and the opportunity for the affected party to make representations.
  • Chapter 5 outlines the decision-making procedures that Monitor proposes to follow. 
  • Chapter 6 explains what rights of appeal exist if the affected party wishes to contest a Monitor enforcement decision or a competition law decision.

Thank you for your responses

The consultation closed on 11 February 2013.

What we will do next

We hope and expect that we will receive a lot of responses to this consultation, so we do not intend to write back to everyone who contacts us. However we will read and consider all responses and, when we publish the final guidance, explain how your comments and views influenced our approach.

Subject to the results of the consultation, we intend to finalise our enforcement guidance ahead of April 2013, when we expect these powers will come into force.

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