NMC faces backlash over proposed fee rise

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is facing backlash over plans to increase its annual registration fee from £120 to £143, despite opposition raised during its consultation.

Recommendations due to go before the regulator’s council next week would increase the annual fee by £23, which the NMC said is needed because it is in an ‘unsustainable financial position’. The proposed rise is equivalent to £1.92 a month.

But some registrants have questioned why the NMC is pressing ahead despite the regulator acknowledging that consultation responses showed opposition to the fee rise.

Responding to the NMC’s social media post about the proposal, one Facebook user said: ‘What was the point in the consultation? Considering you’ve stated there was strong opposition to an increase, this just feels like it was a tick box exercise and you aren’t listening to your members.

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‘Wages aren’t going up, yet everything else is. To support your members, you should be looking at a decrease if anything.’

Another said that ‘while the financial pressures on the NMC are clearly set out, the decision to resolve these pressures by increasing the cost to registrants raises significant concerns’.

They continued: ‘Nurses and midwives have also experienced a sustained erosion of income in real terms over the same period you reference.

‘Unlike the organisation, however, they have had no mechanism to recover those losses. In that context, positioning a fee increase as both necessary and proportionate feels fundamentally misaligned with the financial reality of the workforce.

‘At a time when the profession feels increasingly under-supported, this proposal risks reinforcing the perception that the burden of systemic challenges is being placed on those least able to absorb it.’

Campaign group NMCWatch said registrants may feel ‘more confident’ about the fee increase if there was better clarity on what the funds were being used for.

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It said: ‘The money is there but is it being spent in the right way? What oversight will the council take for spending?  Registrants will be more likely to support [a rise] if they are confident that fees are not being wasted.’

However, the NMC said there was a ‘greater demand on services’ such as registration and revalidation, while annual Fitness to Practise (FtP) referrals had risen by 21% since 2015.

When announcing the proposal, it said: ‘In simple terms, the NMC is now regulating more professionals – now accounting for around one in 50 of the working-age population – in a more complex environment, with a fee that has steadily reduced in value for over a decade.’

Previously, the regulator was warned by health union Unison that a fee increase could cause an ‘extra financial burden’ on the workforce.

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A survey launched by Unison earlier this year, completed by more than 3,000 registrants, found that more than a third of nurses and midwives would ‘reconsider’ renewing their NMC registration if the increase went ahead, with 6% saying they would ‘definitely’ not renew.

If the recommendation to increase the fee is approved on 28 April, the new rate will take effect in October 2026.