PART 1SOCIAL CARE

CHAPTER 2MISCELLANEOUS AMENDMENTS IN RELATION TO SOCIAL CARE SERVICES, SOCIAL CARE WORKERS AND LOCAL AUTHORITY SOCIAL CARE FUNCTIONS

Regulation of social care services: registration etc. of social care services providers

14Duty to submit and publish annual return

(1)Subsections (2) and (3) amend the 2016 Act—

(a)to change the requirement in section 10, for the Welsh Ministers to publish an annual return submitted by a service provider, to a requirement that the service provider must publish such a return and make copies of it available on request, and

(b)to make failure to publish an annual return an offence.

(2)In section 10 of the 2016 Act—

(a)in subsection (1), for the words from “submit” to the end substitute “, following the end of each financial year during which the provider is registered—

(a)submit an annual return to the Welsh Ministers;

(b)publish that return on its website.”;

(b)after subsection (1) insert—

“(1A)A service provider must make available, on request, a copy of an annual return published on its website.”

(c)after subsection (4) insert—

“(4A)An annual return must be published within the prescribed time limit.

(4B)But if disclosure of information contained in the annual return is prohibited by any enactment or other rule of law, that information must be redacted from the annual return before it is published.”;

(d)omit subsection (5).

(3)In section 48 of the 2016 Act—

(a)in the heading, after “submit” insert “or publish”;

(b)for the words from “fail” to the end substitute “—

(a)fail to submit an annual return to the Welsh Ministers within the time limit prescribed under section 10(4), or

(b)fail to publish an annual return on its website within the time limit prescribed under section 10(4A).”