Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to prohibit fee increases for health professional registrants which exceed those registrants' annual pay awards.

The Health and Care Proffessions Council (HCPC) is a self-financing, independent regulator that is accountable to Parliament through the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) who assesses the HCPC’s performance, conducts audits, scrutinises their decisions and reports to Parliament through the Privy Council. Costs are monitored by the regulator’s Council, and the HCPC’s fees remain the lowest of all the professional regulators.

The professional regulators are funded by registrant fees and as independent bodies it is for them to set their fees at a level which ensures they can fulfil their statutory role of protecting, promoting and maintaining the health and safety of the public. We understand that the HCPC decided to raise their registrant fees for a number of reasons: to fund the periodic fee it is required to pay the PSA; to enable the HCPC to operate more flexibly and efficiently; and to ensure the HCPC’s financial viability in the medium to long term.

We have received correspondence from registrants objecting to the proposed fee increase.