The Director General of Fair Trading (Mr John Bridgeman) has launched an investigation into the standards professions require their members to meet in order to obtain and retain the right to practise.
A statement issued by the Office of Fair Trading on May 26 said that the inquiry would be directed towards the legal and accounting professions, but might extend to a range of other professions, including pharmacy. It had been launched at the request of the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Gordon Brown).
The review included, but was not limited to, rules concerning conduct, entry to the professions and demarcation within the professions. Rules that derived from British and European law would be included.
So far as professional conduct is concerned, the inquiry is principally targeted at rules concerning recommended fees and advertising restrictions.
The OFT is also seeking views on the training and qualifications that are required for entry to the professions, on requirements for ongoing professional training and on internal restrictions that limit the provision of certain professional services to subgroups within professions.
Mr Bridgeman said: "Customers need a choice of professional services which are provided efficiently and to a high standard. This can only be achieved if the professions are competitive and unfettered by unnecessary restrictions and free to adopt business practices best suited to meeting their clients' requirements. The review will balance the maintenance of professional and ethical standards with the restrictive effect on competition that rules, regulations, conventions and codes might have."
The OFT consultation document on the review says that Government Ministers have specified that it should not cover the "principal medical professions". It is unclear exactly what professions will be excluded from the review.
An OFT spokeswoman told The Journal to address questions on this point to the Treasury. She believed that the exclusion applied to "medical professions that were already being reviewed elsewhere in Government". She added: "Where the inquiry goes will depend on the returns we get. We have excluded professions that provide services in the public sector and included those that provide services in the private sector."
A Treasury spokeswoman said that the OFT would know the answer. She believed that the exclusion was intended to apply to professions specified in the Competition Act 1998 as having rules exempt from the general prohibition on agreements which prevent, distort or restrict competition.
Schedule 3 of the Act grants exemption to the following health-related activities: the provision of medical or surgical advice and performance of surgery; dentistry; sight testing; veterinary services; nursing; midwifery; physiotherapy; and chiropody.
Mrs Susan Sharpe (director of professional standards, Royal Pharmaceutical Society) said that the Society would be responding to the consultation document after the matter had been considered by the Council's Law and Ethics Policy Committee.
She said that she was confident that, following the revision of the Code of Ethics, all of the Society's professional requirements would be justifiable in the public interest.
The OFT consultation document is available at www.oft.gov.uk/html/new/new.htm.
Comments can be sent to Mr Grahame Horgan, Competition Policy Division, OFT, 2-6 Fleetbank House, Salisbury Square, London EC4Y 8JX (e-mail professions.review@oft.gov.uk) by June 30.