Revalidation (GMC and NMC)

Joining the register is not the end of regulation. Both the GMC and the NMC require registrants to show at regular intervals that they keep their skills and knowledge up to date. The GMC describes revalidation as the way every licensed doctor shows they are fit to practise and maintains their licence to practise. For the NMC, revalidation is how you renew your registration every three years.

• Have an annual appraisal covering your whole scope of practice, based on Good medical practice.
• Collect supporting information from your UK practice, including feedback from patients and colleagues, CPD, and any complaints.
• Tell the GMC your designated body and responsible officer, usually the organisation where you do most of your work and a senior doctor there. You cannot choose your designated body.
• Your responsible officer makes a recommendation to the GMC, usually every five years, on whether you should be revalidated.

Doctors without a responsible officer or suitable person must find a compliant appraiser, send the GMC an annual return and may have to sit a revalidation assessment.

Over each three-year period you must have:

1. 450 practice hours (900 for nurse and midwife dual registration).
2. 35 hours of CPD, of which at least 20 are participatory learning.
3. Five pieces of practice-related feedback.
4. Five written reflective accounts on the approved form.
5. A reflective discussion with another NMC registrant.
6. A health and character declaration.
7. A declaration of appropriate indemnity cover.
8. Confirmation from an appropriate confirmer, ideally your line manager.

The online application opens 60 days before your revalidation date. If you have not met the practice hours, you must complete a return to practice programme or a test of competence.

The NMC emails you 90 days before your renewal date in a year when you are due to revalidate, and recommends getting your confirmation in the final year of the three-year period so that it is as recent as possible. Doctors in training meet the GMC's requirements by engaging fully with their training programme rather than through a separate annual appraisal.

For the NMC, your first three-year period runs from the date you joined the register. GMC guidance says that only in exceptional circumstances can a licence be maintained where supporting information is drawn wholly or significantly from overseas practice, so plan to build UK evidence from your first post. For nurses, keep a log of hours, CPD and feedback from the start rather than reconstructing it in year three. See our guides on the NMC OSCE and PLAB for the routes onto the register.

• Not updating your GMC connection details after changing employer.
• Using your own NMC PIN in the confirmer or reflective discussion field, which blocks the application.
• Leaving CPD records without the participatory hours or link to the Code.
• Missing the fee deadline, which makes NMC registration lapse.