Health and Care Professionals Face Fees Increases

That the Parliament notes the Health and Care Professions Council's (HCPC) reported plans to increase its registration fees by 18% from October 2019; believes that this increase is effectively a tax on practising, as those who are regulated by the HCPC must pay this annual fee in order to continue doing their jobs; understands that this affects a wide range of staff working in 15 health and care professions across the UK, which are art therapists, biomedical scientists, chiropodists/podiatrists, clinical scientists, dietitians, hearing aid dispensers, occupational therapists, operating department practitioners, orthoptists, paramedics, physiotherapists, practitioner psychologists, prosthetists, radiographers and speech and language therapists; regrets that such an increase will, it understands, mean HCPC fees will have risen by 40% since 2014; considers such an increase to be excessive and unreasonable; is concerned at what it considers the lack of public scrutiny around such a large rise in fees, and therefore calls on the HCPC to reconsider this increase as a matter of urgency.