释义 |
oversight authority A statutory or corporate body set up to oversee the work of regulators, tribunals, and inspectorates within a given profession. In healthcare, for example, the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care oversees the work of regulatory, disciplinary, and standards bodies in that sector, and may investigate the policies, practices, and decision-making of bodies (e.g. the General Medical Council) in accordance with powers granted to it by the National Health Service Reform and Healthcare Regulation Act 2002 and the Health and Social Care Act 2012. An oversight authority will typically have at its disposal a range of powers to allow it to intervene or take action against a body whose activities, decisions, or strategy, in its view, fail to adhere to the standard expected by law, policy, or that body’s own rules. For example, an oversight authority may appeal to the High Court to review a tribunal’s decision to strike a practitioner off the profession’s register. It may also seek to intervene in legal proceedings in an ex parte capacity, so as to make representations regarding the function it, or another body, ought to perform in accordance with particular regulatory or disciplinary standards in the sector. Compare professional regulator; professional tribunal. |