These Regulations, which are made under sections 8(6)(b) and 57(3) of the Health and Personal Social Services Act (Northern Ireland) 2001 (“the 2001 Act”) prescribe as relevant registers the registers maintained under provisions of the Care Standards Act 2000 and the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 which appear to the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to correspond to provisions of the 2001 Act.

The purpose of prescribing these registers is to ensure that an individual registered as a social worker in any of them will not be guilty of an offence under section 8(1) of the Act if he takes or uses the title “social worker” or takes or uses any title or description implying that he is so registered, or in any way holds himself out as so registered.

Commencing section 8(3) of the Act enables the Department to make regulations to prohibit persons from working in certain categories of employment unless they are registered in, or in a particular part of, a relevant register.