Member

As the noble Lord has already said, the psychotherapy and counselling professions are not regulated statutorily in the UK. The matter of health and care professions being subject to statutory regulation remains one for my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. I say to the Committee now that this is for him and I understand that there are no plans to regulate these professions at this time. The key question the noble Lord has put before the Committee today regards Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015, which relates to domestic abuse. The context is domestic abuse and, as such, the offence that he seeks today to introduce and replicate applies currently only to those who are “personally connected”, as defined in that Act. That does not include services provided by psychotherapists or counsellors.