Care minister Helen Whately has said she is considering giving the CQC new powers to act on care home visiting bans.

Whately told The Express she was considering new laws to force care homes and hospitals to open up as current regulation only acted as guidance.

She said: “One of the things I am looking at is do we need to give the CQC more powers? I will work out whether that is the best way.

“What I want to do is fix a problem that clearly needs fixing.”

The minister, who has herself been denied access from seeing her mother in intensive care, told an MPs debate last month she was “on the case” on care home visiting rights.

Campaigners have called for an end to care home visiting restrictions.

Kate Terroni, chief inspector of adult social care, integrated care & interim chief operating officer at CQC, told Caring Times: “It is absolutely vital that people are able to spend time with the people they love. The Department of Health and Social Care released guidance in March, updated in August, which lifted visiting restrictions in care homes. Our expectation remains that care homes follow this guidance. Where concerns have been raised with us in relation to visiting we have taken a range of action, including following up with providers, inspecting, taking regulatory action and where applicable, raising safeguarding alerts with local authorities. 

“We continue to seek assurances from care home providers about how they are supporting visiting to happen and we are verifying this information when we go out and inspect and will continue to do so. We ask mandatory questions on each of our care home inspections which looks at how visiting is being supported to happen in a safe way.”