Government Response: The Regulated Services (Inspection Ratings) (Wales) Regulations 2025

Technical Scrutiny point 1 and Merit Scrutiny point 3:The Welsh Government notes and agrees with the points raised and has decided to withdraw the Regulations. We intend to re-lay them in amended form to address these points on 4 March 2025.

A revised Explanatory Memorandum will be laid alongside the re-laid Regulations providing added information on the consultation.

Technical Scrutiny point 2: In relation to the second technical scrutiny point it may assist the Committee to note the following:

The time frame within which Care Inspectorate Wales (“CIW”) (who exercise the functions of regulator on behalf of the Welsh Ministers) provide the outcome of a review requested under regulation 4(2)(a) is set out in paragraph 6.9 of CIW’s Responding to Inspection Reports Policy (HTML document) | Care Inspectorate Wales.

“6.9. We aim to respond within 5 working days of receiving a challenge. Where there is (or is likely to be) a delay the Registered Person, Responsible Individual or relevant person will be informed of the delay and advised of a revised timescale for our response.”

The policy is the means for setting the timescales for sharing the outcome of the Welsh Ministers’ review. Providing the time frame for response in the policy rather than legislation addresses the need for providers to have certainty and the need to avoid delay while affording greater flexibility at operational level where timings can be affected by several variable factors.