Medical Profession (Responsible Officers) Regulations 2010

Will the Minister clarify that the way in which the regulations are written is sufficiently flexible to allow a doctor to take a career break, to move into a different area or to take a break from clinical practice as it currently stands? Are they also sufficiently flexible to allow the responsible officer role not to be tied to the medical director of a trust, but if the medical director of a trust resigns from that post but is very suitable to remain the responsible officer, they can remain the responsible officer and the medical director can be someone else? Furthermore, are they sufficiently flexible to allow you to be able to get rid of a responsible officer if it turns out that they are not being wise enough? Although this is slightly irregular, I should point out for clarification that I am not against these regulations at all—I think that they need to go through. My concern about five years is that most doctors are still in training at that stage.