Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

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.

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.