Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Cancellation of Registration) Order 2026: final business and regulatory impact assessment

Section 5: Next steps and implementation

Recommendations/ preferred options

87. The decision to give the Care Inspectorate this new power was taken following a public consultation in 2021, where enhancement of the CI’s powers was broadly supported (88% of respondents). This Order is required for the CI to be able to implement the power. They will set out the criteria for when the power may be used. This is based on consultation responses from the sector, discussions with providers during webinars held by Scottish Government, and discussions with the CI.

88. Following consultation feedback from stakeholders, it was agreed that the legislation will define what is meant by “sustained” improvement. For the purposes of this policy, this will be twelve months.

Implementation considerations/ plan

89. The proposed secondary legislation is to be laid in Parliament early in 2026 and will be subject to the negative procedure. It will come into force on 21 March 2026 (subject to its completion of the relevant Parliamentary procedures) and will therefore be implemented by the Care Inspectorate from this date. It is anticipated that this power would be used in rare circumstances, however the CI have committed to issuing guidance to social care providers setting out when and how it would be implemented.

Post implementation review

90. The Care Inspectorate will be implementing this new power as part of their regulatory regime, as set out in legislation. Although an independent public body, they are ultimately accountable to Scottish Ministers, so in the unlikely event that they were not using this power as intended in the legislation, Ministers would be able to take action.