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Updated version of Right-touch regulation responds to current challenges
07 Oct 2025
“A much-needed contribution. An easy and compelling read and relevant to regulators of all kinds.”
“Since its first publication in 2010, the PSA’s Right-touch Regulation guidance has offered clear, practical principles for applying risk-based professional regulation in health and care. The 2025 update ensures these principles remain timely and applicable in today’s uncertain, rapidly changing, financially-constrained, diverse, and technologically-driven landscape, in which striking the right balance between over- and under-regulation is more critical than ever.”
The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) has published an updated version of Right-touch regulation. Right-touch regulation is the approach we adopt in our work and encourage others to adopt.
The principles-based framework helps with deciding how best to protect the public by looking at the level of risk of harm and choosing the most effective and proportionate response, whether through regulation or other actions.
In this latest version of Right-touch regulation, we expand on its central ideas to support regulators in responding to the challenges and opportunities faced today, which are quite different to those faced when the last edition was published in 2015. We highlight that agility and collaboration are more important than ever in addressing these issues.
At a time when regulation is under pressure to show its value, support innovation and help drive economic growth, we believe Right-touch regulation remains a powerful tool. The central principles, alongside the areas of new emphasis outlined in this edition, encourage efficient identification of what needs to be regulated and how. Applying these principles helps lead to approaches which drive improvement and enable rapid responses in evolving and changing situations.
We will be sharing more practical resources on how to apply right-touch regulation on our website from early 2026.