Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to waive Nursing and Midwifery Council registration fees for (a) nurses and (b) midwives that are working in response to the covid-19 outbreak.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom, and nursing associates in England. The NMC’s regulatory activities are primarily funded by annual registration fees, currently set at £120 per year. There are no current plans to subsidise the annual registration fee for existing registrants.

The Department has been working closely with the NMC to support the response to the COVID-19 outbreak. On 30 March the NMC introduced a temporary register to increase the number of nurses and midwives available to respond to the pandemic. There is no registration fee for nurses and midwives joining the temporary register. The Department is in discussions with the NMC about the additional costs of implementing the temporary register.