Amendments to section 250 of the Health and Care Act 2012 came into effect in August 2025, strengthening the mandate to comply with information standards.
Previously published information standards are unaffected and providers must continue to ‘pay regard’ until they are revoked or republished under the amended powers.
Any new information standards that are published under this revised legislation must be complied with by public and private providers of health and adult social care services that are subject to the mandate, and they could be asked to provide information on their compliance for the purposes of monitoring.
NHS bodies are required to comply with an information standard as a condition of the Provider Licence. In the future, private providers may face enforcement action if they fail to evidence compliance with information standards.
More information can be found on the NHS England website.
