For more background information on this topic, see the Library paper on Professional regulation in health and social care (September 2017).

On 24 September 2018, the Health and Care Professions Council launched a consultation on increasing its fees from £90 to £106 per year. In February 2019, it confirmed that the increase would go ahead. A few Parliamentary Questions have been asked on this subject, for instance:

PQ 229129 [Health and Care Professions Council: Fees and Charges] 11 March 2019

Asked by: Ruane, Chris

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on staffing levels of the changes to the Health and Care Professions Council registration fees from October 2019.

Answering member: Stephen Hammond | Department: Department of Health and Social Care

Following public consultation, the Health and Care Professions Council’s (HCPC) is planning to raise its annual fees by £16. If adopted, the HCPC’s annual registration fee will rise from £90 to £106 a year from October 2019. The HCPC registration fees will remain the lowest of any of the United Kingdom-wide health and care regulators. Registration fees are tax-deductible and this fee rise will amount to just over £1 a month extra for most of the HCPC’s registrants.

The Government has made no assessment of the potential effect on staffing levels of the changes to the HCPC’s registration fees from October 2019. The HCPC is independent of Government, funded by registrants’ fees on a costs recovery basis.

PQ HL13774 [Health and Care Professions Council: Fees and Charges] 4 March 2019

Asked by: Lord Balfe

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to review the decisions by the Health and Care Professions Council taken on 14 February to increase their subscription fees for Allied Health Professionals, including dieticians, paramedics and physiotherapists amongst many others, by 18 per cent from October.

Answering member: Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford | Department: Department of Health and Social Care

The Government has made no assessment of the conduct and findings of the consultation undertaken by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) into its registration fees, and the action taken by the HCPC as a result of its findings. The HCPC is independent of Government, funded by registrants’ fees on a costs recovery basis.

Following public consultation, the HCPC is planning to raise its annual fees by £16. If adopted, the HCPC’s annual registration fee will rise from £90 to £106 a year from October 2019. The HCPC registration fees will remain the lowest of any of the United Kingdom-wide health and care regulators. Registration fees are tax-deductible and this fee rise will amount to just over £1 a month extra for most of the HCPC’s registrants.

An Early Day Motion (EDM #2069) was also tabled in Parliament in February 2019 criticising the increase:

That this House notes that the Health and Care Professions Council plans to increase its registration fees by 18 per cent from October 2019; believes that this increase is effectively a tax on practicing, as those who are regulated by the HCPC must pay this annual fee in order to continue doing their jobs; notes that this affects a wide range of staff working in 15 health and care professions across the UK, including paramedics, occupation therapists, operating department practitioners, physiotherapists, radiographers, dieticians, chiropodists, podiatrists, orthoptists, clinical scientists, and speech and language therapists; regrets that such an increase will mean HCPC fees rising by 40 per cent since 2014, outstripping inflation as well as the smaller pay increases that health and care staff have had across this period; considers such an increase to be excessive and unreasonable, with further concerns about the lack of public scrutiny around such a large rise in fees; and therefore calls on the HSPC to reconsider this increase as a matter of urgency.

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