UK changes law for medical regulation.

Amendments to the legislation that underpins the General Medical Council are to be included in the United Kingdom's forthcoming NHS modernisation bill, whose introduction in parliament is being held up while consultation takes place with the profession.

The changes are ostensibly technical, to allow the powers of the GMC in future to be changed by order in council rather than by primary legislation. But as part of the government's plans for clinical governance the issue will become central to the political debate, with concerns about the continued existence of the GMC.

When Sir Donald Irvine, chairman of the GMC, gave evidence to a House of Commons committee …