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Standards for Regulators and Accredited Registers (2026)
19 Mar 2026
A single set of Standards introduced in March 2026. These Standards cover both professional regulators and Accredited Registers. While these organisations operate in different ways and have different powers, the Standards reinforce the principle that the public should expect the same high level of protection.
Standards for Regulators and Accredited Registers
These are our combined standards covering both regulators and Accredited Registers published in March 2026.
What we expect of regulators - our evidence framework
Our Standards for regulators describe the outcomes of good regulation for each of the regulators' functions. The evidence framework provides examples of evidence that we may review as part of our assessment of a regulator against the Standards.
Implementation
The new Standards will come into effect on 1 July 2026. For regulators, this means we will begin collecting evidence about their performance against the new standards for their 2026/27 performance review cycle. Therefore, we do not expect to publish the first performance review using these Standards until June 2027. As the regulators’ cycles begin at different times, the transition to the new standards will be staggered.
What we expect of Accredited Registers - our core expectations and evidence
The Standards for Accredited Registers are the criteria we use to decide if a non-statutory register of health and social care practitioners should be accredited under our legal powers in the National Health Service Reform and Health Professionals Act 2002. Our detailed expectations cover:
- the standards
- the core expectations for each standard we look for in deciding that a standard is met
- the suggested evidence that we use to determine whether a core expectation is met.
Implementation
For Accredited Registers, implementation will begin from 1 July 2026. Applications for accreditation received from new and existing registers before 1 July will be transitioned to the revised Standards before we report on outcomes. From 1 July all applications and notifications of change must be made against the revised Standards. Each applicant and accredited register will receive information about how the transition process will work for them specifically.
Standards of Good Regulation and the Standards for Accredited Registeres
Due to the staggered implementation some of our performance reviews and accreditation reports will be published using the previous versions of the Standards of Good Regulation and the Standards for Accredited Registers.
Find out more about how we are introducing our new combined standardsWord versions
If you would like to read our Standards using larger print, these Word versions can be downloaded and you can adjust the size of the font.