The Health and Social Care Act 2012 introduced the first legal duties about health inequalities. These pieces of legislation may be seen as complementary in setting a framework for the public sector to take action to reduce inequalities within England at local and national levels. …

Why is there a need for government regulation, and what limits need to be placed on these regulations? Government regulations are necessary because they protect public safety and market fairness. For example, food safety regulations help protect consumers from pathogens that could cause widespread illness.

Consumer protection policies, laws and regulations help increase consumer welfare by ensuring that businesses can be held accountable. Businesses that are known to treat consumers fairly will gain a good reputation and become more sought after.

The six principles of the Care Act are:

• Empowerment.
• Protection.
• Prevention.
• Proportionality.
• Partnership.
• Accountability.

The Human Rights Act gives every individual the right to respect for their private and family life. This includes having any personal information held in confidence. This right, however, is not absolute and can be overridden if necessary, such as for a safeguarding concern.

In practice, this means that all patient/client information, whether held on paper, computer, visually or audio recorded, or held in the memory of the professional, must not normally be disclosed without the consent of the patient/client.

The Seven Principles

• Lawfulness, fairness and transparency.
• Purpose limitation.
• Data minimisation.
• Accuracy.
• Storage limitation.
• Integrity and confidentiality (security)
• Accountability.

The Data Protection Act 2018 controls how your personal information is used by organisations, businesses or the government. They must make sure the information is: used fairly, lawfully and transparently. used for specified, explicit purposes.