Thank you to those who wrote to me with a
campaign email “EDM 2069 to stop the HCPC fees hike”
There is to be an early day motion regarding this
and I have been asked to sign it. As a principle I never sign early day motions
as they very rarely achieve anything whilst at the same time running up costs
to the tax payer.
The HCPC put out a statement some time ago:
The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) is consulting with registrants including radiographers about
proposals to increase the renewal fee from £90 to £106 per year - a rise
of almost 18%.
The
Council claims that the increase is needed to "support our new strategic
focus of promoting professionalism and preventing fitness to practise issues
from arising. We also need to continue to invest in the services we offer to
registrants. The consultation takes place in the context of keeping pace with
the cost of inflation and the impact on our operations and income when social
workers in England transfer to Social Work England in 2019."
The
HCPC's operating costs are funded by radiographers and the other professionals
on the register.
Marc
Seale, the HCPC’s chief executive and registrar said, “The consultation sets
out where the registrants’ fees are spent and why the increases are needed. It
highlights how these increases compare to our existing fees and provides
information on our financial performance, including the efficiencies we have
already made.
"It
also shows how the proposed increases compare with other regulators. If
adopted, we would continue to have the lowest renewal fee of all the health and
care regulators overseen by the Professional Standards Authority.”
However that is not to say I do not have sympathy
with the concerns raised and with that in mind I will raise the matter with
ministers and their officials when I see them.
