Regulators will be able to strike off or discipline doctors, nurses and other health workers who cannot communicate clearly in English, under plans announced today.

A new draft Bill published by the Law Commission will unite the nine bodies currently covering healthcare, allowing them to work from one legislative framework.

At present, organisations including the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the General Medical Council (GMC) are bound by different rules on what they can do.

New powers would allow regulators to proactively investigate instances of suspected poor conduct and practice whenever they come to their attention.

At the moment, some can only investigate once they have received a formal complaint.

The sanctions regulators can impose will be extended and, for the first time, they will be able to discipline or strike off professionals who are not able to communicate clearly in English.

The Bill also allows regulators to reconsider cases that have been closed following a mistake or error, as recommended by the inquiry into the scandal at Mid Staffs.

A process of revalidation - where professionals undergo "MOTs" to ensure they are still fit to practise - will be extended from doctors to all health and social care professionals.

Schemes could also be introduced to bar unregulated workers from providing services, according to the UK-wide recommendations.

The nine organisations, including the General Dental Council, General Pharmaceutical Council and Health Professions Council, are responsible for around 1.4 million workers across 32 health and social care roles.

Nicholas Paines QC, the commissioner leading the project for England and Wales, said: "The professional regulators of the health and social care field operate within a wide variety of legal frameworks that have been agreed and amended by Parliament in different ways, at different times, over the past 150 years.

"Our recommended reforms place patient protection firmly at the heart of a new legal framework.

"If implemented, they will enhance the autonomy of the regulators, empower them to respond more quickly and effectively to emerging public health concerns and enable them to meet the demands of a modern, devolved health and social care sector."

A joint letter signed by the regulators calls on the Government to support the new plans and asks for "urgent parliamentary consideration" of the Bill.

It said: "The Law Commission was tasked with creating a single, streamlined legal structure covering all nine regulators which would enable us to provide better protection for patients, be more responsive, reduce the burden of regulation and to drive down costs.

"We were, and remain, committed to these aims. Realising them is essential if we are to retain the trust and confidence of the public, healthcare professionals and the health service in which those professionals work.

"The recommendations of Robert Francis QC following events in Mid Staffordshire highlighted the vital importance of effective regulation focused on promoting safe, compassionate patient care rather than, as too often in the past, intervening only after patients have suffered harm."