Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

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.

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.