NMC chief suggests ‘smaller, more regular’ registration fee increases in future

The chief executive and registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has suggested the need for ‘smaller, more regular’ registration fee increases in the future, to avoid ‘larger’ increases such as that approved today.

The NMC’s governing council has today approved proposals to increase the annual fee from £120 to £143 – equivalent to £1.92 per month.

Addressing the council meeting this afternoon, Paul Rees recognised that the ‘majority of registrants’ had been ‘opposed’ to the move as per feedback to its 12-week public consultation.

In asking council members to approve the fee increase, Mr Rees reiterated that this would be the first rise for 11 years and suggested this was no longer a ‘sustainable’ approach.

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‘Our recommendation in the future is we need smaller, more regular increases,’ he said.

‘Waiting 11 years means we’ve had to request a larger increase. This is a situation we must avoid in the future.’

He suggested that the NMC was only able to make improvements – such as to its fitness to practise processes, digital services and education work – ‘by increasing the fee’.

‘It’s not a decision we take lightly, especially after looking at the responses to the consultation, but it’s a necessity,’ he added.

Mr Rees informed the council that the regulator’s reserves had dropped from £101m in March 2024 to around £49.6m currently, and were projected to fall to £15.9m in March 2027.

Mr Rees added that, if there is no increase in the fee, it ‘puts the public protection role’ of the NMC ‘at risk’.

He added: ‘In recognition of the cost-of-living crisis, we’ve held [the fee] flat since 2015.’

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However, Mr Rees said if the fee had increased in line with inflation since 2015, it would now be around £168 per year.

‘This was a deliberate choice,’ he said. ‘But we believe this approach is no longer sustainable.’

He said the number of nursing and midwifery professionals have increased, alongside a ‘greater demand’ on services such as registration and revalidation, while annual FtP referrals have also risen.

Mr Rees added that the NMC ‘need to show responsibility’ and not let the registrants ‘absorb’ additional costs.

He pointed to the regulator’s recent move to reduce its workforce by around 10% and cutting £3.1m from non-staff spending each year in attempts to reduce costs.

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‘Even with these cutbacks the trajectory [of the reserves] is all too clear,’ he said. ‘Continuing the freeze on the fee is no longer viable.’

The £1.92 per month increase is expected to come into force in October 2026.