Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for health professionals of the decision by the Health and Care Professions Council to increase its mandatory registration fee; and what information he holds on whether that Council assessed the affordability of that increase for (a) part-time and (b) other members.

The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) is a self-financing, independent regulator that is accountable to Parliament through the Professional Standards Authority whose role is to assess the HCPC’s performance, conduct audits, scrutinise their decisions and report to Parliament.

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.

As part of the process for raising fees the HCPC undertook a public consultation, the responses from which were considered by the HCPC before implementing the fee rise.