Research and scholarship regarding ethical aspects of health and social care practices during the COVID-19 pandemic have detailed significant moral distress and dilemmas experienced by nurses and other practitioners. 1 What has not been foregrounded, thus far, has been practitioners' expectations and experiences of the role of regulators in mitigating -or contributing to -ethical challenges during the pandemic.A UK study 2 by one of the authors of this editorial (D.B.) reported findings from interviews and focus groups with practitioners and a round table event with regulators. Other editorial authors (R.H., M.R. and A.G.) participated in a webinar, discussing the study, in July 2021. 3 Much of the report data reflected ethical issues as highlighted in other pandemic research studies; however, data in this study also illuminated perspectives on the role and responsibilities of regulators. This is an area that has previously received little attention and suggests how practitioners in different professions perceive the role of the regulator, with a particular focus on responses to guidance, the invocation of the concept of judgement in regulatory guidance and the implications for relational regulation as we navigate this phase of the pandemic.In the study, commissioned by the Professional Standards Authority, practitioners did not generally perceive regulators as helpful or supportive. Rather, they had a lack of trust and feared blame and reproach. Perceptions of the regulator's role did not always reflect their statutory remit, and there was a tendency by some practitioners to compare their own professional regulator unfavourably to regulators of other professions. The value, or otherwise, of guidance from the regulator was contested, with questions arising regarding the timing, format and relevance of some regulatory guidance issued during the pandemic. Practitioners noted the tension that can arise between internally motivated approaches to ethical practice and practice that is driven by external standards and expectations. The notion of 'judgement' was of particular interest, whereby it was recognised as a recurrent expectation in professional guidance from