Wales and Northern Ireland each operate their own registration and inspection of independent health care, under their own legislation, through their own bodies. Neither is a branch of the English system and neither will be found by searching the English one.
Wales: Healthcare Inspectorate Wales
Healthcare Inspectorate Wales is the inspectorate for healthcare in Wales. Among its functions is the registration and inspection of independent health care establishments in Wales, including independent hospitals and clinics, under the Welsh regulatory framework which has its roots in the Care Standards Act 2000 and regulations made under it.
As everywhere, the scheme attaches to defined categories of establishment and agency rather than to the word clinic. The determining question is whether the service you are buying falls within a category that must register in Wales.
- Open
- Healthcare Inspectorate Wales
hiw.org.uk - Type in
- The registered provider name, then the trading name, then the town. Follow the site's route to registration of independent health care and to published inspection reports.
- A good result looks like
- A registered establishment at the address where you will be treated, with the category of registration stated and any inspection reports available to read.
- An ambiguous result looks like
- A registration for a different site of the same provider. A category of registration that does not obviously include the service you are buying. No result at all, which is common and often lawful.
- What it does not prove
- That your treatment is within the registered category, that any individual practitioner was assessed, or that prescribing arrangements were reviewed.
Northern Ireland: the RQIA
The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority regulates and inspects health and social care services in Northern Ireland, including independent health care. Its statutory basis is Northern Ireland legislation, principally the framework established by the Health and Personal Social Services (Quality, Improvement and Regulation) (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 and regulations made under it.
RQIA publishes registration information and inspection reports. As with the other three nations, read which categories a provider is registered for and read the report text rather than any summary of it.
- Open
- The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority
rqia.org.uk - Type in
- The registered provider name, then the trading name, then the town. Follow the site's route to registered services and inspection reports.
- A good result looks like
- A registered service at the treatment address, with the categories of registration stated, a current status, and any published inspection reports.
- An ambiguous result looks like
- A registration under a parent company name you were not told about. Categories that do not appear to include your treatment. Nothing found, which may simply mean registration is not required.
- What it does not prove
- That your treatment is inside the registered categories, that the practitioner holds any aesthetic qualification, or that a prescriber assessed you.
- Note
- Northern Ireland has its own pharmaceutical regulator, separate from the GPhC, if a pharmacist is involved.
Establishing scope before you search
In both nations the same trap awaits, and it is the one described in what premises regulation covers. If you search, find nothing and conclude that something is wrong, you have made an error. The most likely explanation for an absent entry is that the service is not one that must register.
Turn it into a written question instead. Ask the provider: is the service I am buying one that requires registration with the inspectorate in this nation, and if it is, under what name are you registered. Two sentences, and the answer is useful whichever way it goes.
| Nation | Body | Search by | Read this on the entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | Care Quality Commission | Company name, location name, postcode | Regulated activities registered |
| Scotland | Healthcare Improvement Scotland | Provider name, service name, address | Service type registered |
| Wales | Healthcare Inspectorate Wales | Provider name, establishment name, town | Category of registration |
| Northern Ireland | RQIA | Provider name, service name, town | Categories of registration |
A framework written by this publication to organise the procedure. It is not a measurement, a guideline or a regulator's classification.
What is the same across all four nations
It is worth restating, because in a section about divergence it is easy to lose.
- The professional registers are UK wide, and the GPhC covers Great Britain with a separate pharmaceutical regulator in Northern Ireland.
- Medicines law is UK wide. Botulinum toxin is a prescription only medicine in Cardiff and Belfast as much as in London, and the questions in which treatments require a prescriber apply unchanged.
- Medical devices regulation, and the MHRA's role in it, is UK wide, with particular arrangements applying in Northern Ireland.
- Advertising rules under the CAP Code apply across the UK, and the ASA takes complaints from anywhere in it.
- Consumer law applies throughout, with different court procedures in each jurisdiction.
What is not UK wide, and this bears repeating in every nation, is the England only licensing power in the Health and Care Act 2022 and the England only offence relating to under 18s in the 2021 Act. Neither creates any Welsh or Northern Irish rule.
Complaints routes
Where a service is registered, its inspectorate can receive concerns about it and publishes how. Where the practitioner is a statutory registrant, the UK professional regulator handles concerns about the individual. For money and contract matters, consumer law routes apply, and each nation has its own consumer advice and trading standards arrangements.
Northern Ireland has a distinct consumer advice landscape and a distinct ombudsman structure for public services. If you are in Northern Ireland it is worth establishing at the outset which body handles which type of complaint there, rather than assuming the English map. The general map, with the four nation caveats marked, is in who you complain to.
The written questions, adapted
- Is the service I am buying one that requires registration with the inspectorate in this nation.
- If it is, under which provider name and at which registered address are you listed.
- If it is not, what oversight applies to this service here, if any.
- Who is the responsible clinician, and what is their registration number.
- If a prescription only medicine is used, who prescribes it and when will they assess me in person.
The point of writing them down is not formality. It is that a written answer can be reread later, forwarded to a regulator, and shown to a court. A verbal reassurance cannot.