Regulation 9A: Visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals and hospices
Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/2936)
Last verified by Verivius on 19 May 2026. Next review due 17 Aug 2026.
Plain British summary
Service users staying overnight in a care home, hospital or hospice must be able to receive visits. Care home residents must not be discouraged from taking visits out. Outpatients at hospitals and hospices must be able to be accompanied by a family member, friend or supporter. Exceptional circumstances can override this, but the bar is high, and decisions must reflect the service user's consent (or, if they lack capacity, their best interests).
Full text on legislation.gov.uk. Treat quotes on this page as targeted excerpts, not as a substitute for the regulation.
Targeted verbatim quotes (1)
“Unless there are exceptional circumstances, service users … whose care or treatment involves an overnight stay or the provision of accommodation … must be facilitated to receive visits at those premises … who are provided with accommodation in a care home, must not be discouraged from taking visits out of that care home … who attend a hospital or hospice for the provision of care or treatment which does not involve an overnight stay, must be enabled to be accompanied at those premises by a family member, friend or a person who is otherwise providing support to the service user.”
Reg 9A(2): the visiting duty
What Verivius does for you
Visiting restrictions captured via incidents register
Not currently surfaced as a dedicated workflow. Visiting restrictions imposed under the "exceptional circumstances" carve-out should be logged in the incidents register so the rationale, the duration, and the review trail are captured. A dedicated visiting-restriction workflow is a candidate for a future release.
What this regulation does NOT say
Industry-folklore claims that are commonly attributed to this regulation but do not appear in the primary source.
Visiting can be paused for general infection-control reasons.
Pandemic-era practice normalised blanket visiting restrictions. Reg 9A was introduced in 2024 partly in response to that. The wording is "Unless there are exceptional circumstances", a high bar that requires a specific, evidenced reason for the specific service user, not a blanket policy. Read the regulation before applying any restriction.