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The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is consulting on amendments to the annual fees it proposes to charge a small number of the providers it regulates.

These fees cover CQC’s work in registering providers and monitoring their compliance with government standards of safety and quality.

The consultation sets out proposals for a fairer basis for charging fees to:

• Primary Care Trusts
• the Health Protection Agency
• the NHS Blood and Transplant service
• NHS Direct

CQC consulted from October to December 2011 on three minor amendments to the existing scheme for providers. These further amendments proposed in this consultation will be added to those changes and, if agreed, take effect together from 1 April 2012. 

The Commission will also be carrying out a more detailed consultation on its longer-term approach to fees for all providers later this year, with a view to implementing those changes in phases from 2013/14 onwards.

Cynthia Bower, CQC’s chief executive, said:

“This additional consultation addresses some issues that have come to light around a small number of providers who are paying a disproportionate fee compared to the amount of regulatory work required for the services they provide. The consultation is designed to address that anomaly and ensure that the fees we charge are fairer and more proportionate to the scale of some of the services that we regulate.”

For further information please contact the CQC press office on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.

Notes to editors

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. We make sure that care in hospitals, dental practices, ambulances, care homes, people’s own homes and elsewhere meets government standards of quality and safety – the standards anyone should expect whenever or wherever they receive care. We also protect the interests of vulnerable people, including those whose rights are restricted under the Mental Health Act.

We register services if they meet government standards, we make unannounced inspections of services – both on a regular basis and in response to concerns – and we carry out investigations into why care fails to improve. We continually monitor information from our inspections, from information we collect nationally and locally, and from the public, local groups, care workers and whistleblowers. We put the views, experiences, health and wellbeing of people who use services at the centre of our work and we have a range of powers we can use to take action if people are getting poor care.

Our powers to set fees under the Health and Social Care Act 2008

Section 85 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the 2008 Act) allows us to charge fees for a number of activities relating to registration. These include applications to register, vary the conditions of an existing registration, cancel registration, vary or cancel a period of suspension of registration, and for maintaining registration. The Act allows for different levels of fees for different types of provider and in different circumstances, and for CQC to identify factors we can use to calculate the fee (for example, a large provider might pay more than a small one). CQC is also required to consult on fee proposals and to obtain approval from the Secretary of State. The Act also allows for the possibility of extending fee setting powers beyond registration and into CQC's other functions, if regulations are made to enable that.