How Many CPD Hours Do You Need? UK Requirements by Profession

There is no single UK rule for CPD hours. Each regulator or professional body sets its own requirement, and many set no hours at all. Nurses, midwives and nursing associates need 35 hours of CPD every three years for NMC revalidation, at least 20 of them participatory. Dental nurses need 50 hours of verifiable CPD in each five-year GDC cycle, and dentists need 100. RICS surveyors need 20 hours a year, and retail investment advisers need 35 hours in every 12 months under FCA rules. Doctors, pharmacists, HCPC registrants, solicitors and teachers in England have no hours target at all: they are judged on records, appraisal or a declaration of competence instead.

At a glance: Nexis CPD offers £9 CPD-accredited online courses — 100% online, with an instantly emailed, employer-verifiable certificate. Any three courses cost £18, and teams of 5 or more pay £6 a course place.

This guide brings together the CPD requirement for every profession we have a detailed guide on, in one table, with the source for each figure. It then explains the different CPD models, what “verifiable” means, whether online learning counts, what happens if you fall short, and how to keep a record that survives an audit. General information — always check your regulator’s current rules.

How many CPD hours does each profession need?

The table gives the core requirement for each profession, who sets it, and the part that most often catches people out: the verifiable, participatory or audit element. We checked every figure against the regulator’s or professional body’s own published rules on 16 October 2026. Where a profession has no hours target, the table says so and names what is measured instead. Each profession name links to our full guide for that profession.

Three things are worth reading into the table.

Jurisdiction matters. The NMC, GDC, HCPC, GOC and RCVS register people across the whole UK, so their rules are the same in all four nations, and the GMC licenses doctors UK-wide. The GPhC regulates pharmacy in Great Britain only. Social Work England, the EYFS and the arrangements for teachers in England stop at the border, and the SRA covers England and Wales. Social care shows how far the nations differ: in Northern Ireland, NISCC asks social workers, social care practitioners and managers for at least 90 hours of post-registration training and learning in each registration period (three years for social workers, five for social care practitioners). Social Care Wales removed its CPD hours target from 1 April 2025, and the SSSC in Scotland asks for continuous professional learning every year without specifying the number of hours.

A regulator and a membership body are not the same thing. ARB is the statutory regulator for architects; RIBA is a membership body with its own, heavier CPD rule on top. The same split applies to counsellors, HR professionals and estate agents in England, where CPD is a condition of membership rather than of the legal right to work.

Every figure is a minimum. Hitting the number does not prove you are competent. The hours make sure learning happens; the reflection shows whether it changed your practice.

What are the main CPD models?

Strip away the names and UK CPD schemes fall into six models. Knowing which one you are in tells you what will actually be checked.

Fixed hours over a cycle

The most familiar model sets a minimum number of hours over a fixed period, usually with a condition on which hours count. The NMC asks for 35 hours over three years, at least 20 of them participatory. The GDC asks for 100, 75 or 50 hours of verifiable CPD over five years, depending on your registration. RICS asks for 20 hours each calendar year, at least 10 of them structured, and the RCVS asks for 35 hours a year from vets and 15 from registered veterinary nurses. Under rule TC 2.1.15R of the FCA Handbook, a firm must ensure each retail investment adviser completes at least 35 hours in every 12 months. ACCA’s unit route works the same way, with one unit equal to one hour.

Points

The General Optical Council counts points rather than hours. Optometrists and dispensing opticians need at least 36 points in each three-year cycle, and the type of activity decides how many points it earns. Self-directed learning earns at most one point for an hour or more, while a registrant-led peer review earns three. Points schemes reward the activities the regulator values most, rather than time spent.

Records and reflection, with no hours

A growing group of regulators has dropped hours altogether and asks for written records instead. GPhC registrants submit six records a year at renewal. Social Work England asks for at least two pieces of CPD a year, one with a peer reflection. The CIPD asks members for at least three CPD records a year, though it recommends around 30 hours of planned learning. The HCPC sets five CPD standards and audits a sample at each renewal. CIMA says it “doesn’t prescribe numbers of hours or units” and asks members to complete its CPD cycle at least once a year.

Continuing competence and appraisal

Some regulators judge the professional, not the log. Solicitors in England and Wales declare at practising certificate renewal that they have reflected on and addressed their learning and development needs and are competent to perform their role. Doctors have an annual appraisal, and their responsible officer’s revalidation recommendation to the GMC draws on five years of those appraisals. In both, CPD is evidence for a judgement rather than a total to reach.

Membership CPD

Professional bodies that are not statutory regulators can still require CPD as a condition of membership. RIBA requires practising Chartered Members to do at least 35 hours a year, 20 of them on its ten Core Curriculum topics. BACP normally expects registered members to do at least 30 hours a year, and Propertymark requires at least 12 hours a year from most member grades. Breaking a membership rule can cost you your membership and your listing on a register. Breaking a statutory regulator’s rule can cost you the legal right to practise.

Periodic reassessment and licence renewal

Some roles have no CPD scheme at all but must be retrained or reassessed on a fixed cycle. Lorry, bus and coach drivers complete 35 hours of Driver CPC periodic training every five years. Gas Safe registered engineers renew their certificates of competence every five years. Since 1 April 2025, door supervisors and security guards renewing an SIA licence must hold a refresher qualification. In group and school-based early years settings, the EYFS requires safeguarding training to be renewed every two years and paediatric first aid every three. These are pass-or-fail requirements: miss them and the work stops.

What is verifiable CPD?

Verifiable CPD is learning you can prove: there is evidence that you did it, and a clear link between the activity and a learning outcome for your practice. Self-directed reading with nothing to show for it is usually non-verifiable.

The exact test depends on the scheme, and so does the vocabulary:

• Verifiable (GDC, ACCA, ICAEW). ACCA counts an activity as verifiable when you can answer yes to three questions: was it relevant to your career, can you explain how you applied it at work, and can you provide evidence that you did it. The GDC goes further: all hours you submit must be verifiable, and the provider’s evidence must show the aims and objectives, the anticipated GDC development outcomes, the dates, the hours, your name and who quality-assured the activity. The GDC does not approve CPD providers, so checking this is your job.
• Participatory (NMC). Activity that “involves interaction with one or more other professionals”. The NMC says this can happen in a physical or a virtual environment.
• Structured (RICS, FCA, RIBA). RICS defines it as learning where outcomes can be easily identified, typically webinars, seminars, conferences, lectures and workshops. The FCA’s examples include courses, web-based seminars and e-learning.
• Interactive and provider-led (GOC). Interactive CPD involves attendance with others, or distance learning with real interaction with peers. Provider-led points come from approved GOC CPD providers.

A certificate on its own rarely meets the full test. It proves completion; it does not prove the activity was relevant to you or that you applied what you learned. That is why most schemes ask for a short reflection alongside the evidence.

Does online CPD count towards your CPD hours?

Usually yes, but often only towards part of the requirement. Two questions decide it: does your scheme accept self-directed learning, and does the activity meet any verifiable, participatory or structured condition?

• Nurses, midwives and nursing associates. A self-paced course done alone counts towards the 15 non-participatory hours, not the 20 participatory ones. A live online session where you interact with other professionals can be participatory.
• Dental professionals. An online course counts if the provider’s evidence meets the GDC’s verifiable criteria. Our dental guide answers this in its section “Can an online course count towards GDC CPD hours?”.
• Pharmacy professionals. The GPhC does not list approved courses; your records should describe learning you have completed and the benefit it has had for the people using your services. See “Can employer mandatory training count as GPhC CPD?” in our pharmacists guide.
• HCPC registrants. Online learning can feed your CPD record, but the HCPC wants to see how learning improved your practice. Our HCPC guide explains why “Regulator CPD and employer mandatory training are different things”.
• Financial advisers and surveyors. The FCA lists e-learning as an example of structured CPD, and RICS counts webinars as structured learning.
• Optometrists and dispensing opticians. Self-directed learning earns at most one point per activity, and does not count towards the 18 points that must come from GOC CPD providers.
• Lorry, bus and coach drivers. Only approved Driver CPC training counts, and no more than 12 of the 35 hours can be e-learning.

The common thread: online learning is a good fit for the self-directed or non-participatory part of a requirement, and for the compliance topics every professional needs. It rarely fills the whole requirement on its own.

What happens if you don’t complete your CPD?

With a statutory regulator, missing CPD is a registration problem, not a paperwork one. If you do not meet the requirement, you usually cannot renew, and working without registration is the real risk.

• NMC. The NMC’s guidance says that if you do not renew your registration, you will lapse from the register and cannot practise as a registered nurse, midwife or nursing associate.
• GDC. If you do not meet the CPD requirements by the end of your grace period, the GDC says you may be removed from the register.
• GPhC. Revalidation records are submitted at annual renewal, and if you don’t renew, the GPhC says you will be removed from the register.
• Social Work England. If you do not record your CPD by 30 November, it may decide not to renew your registration.
• ARB. Architects who do not comply with the CPD scheme risk removal from the Register.
• RICS. A first breach of the CPD rule attracts a fixed penalty caution; a second within ten years attracts a caution and a fine.
• Driver CPC. If you miss your deadline, you cannot drive professionally until the training is finished, and you can be fined up to £1,000 for driving without Driver CPC.

Audits are the other half. The HCPC selects 2.5 per cent of each profession at every renewal and asks for a CPD profile. BACP audits 1.5 per cent of eligible members renewing each month, the CIPD audits a random sample of members each year, and the NMC selects some registrants to verify their revalidation evidence. An audit is where thin records, rounded-up hours or reflections someone else wrote come to light. The HCPC says it would investigate a profile that is not the registrant’s own work under its fitness to practise process.

How do you record CPD?

Record each activity when you do it, not at renewal. A useful entry has eight parts:

1. The date and how long the activity took, in real time.
2. What it was: a course, webinar, supervision session, reading, peer discussion or project.
3. Who provided it, if anyone.
4. Which category it counts towards in your scheme: verifiable, participatory, structured or self-directed.
5. Why you chose it: the gap or need it addresses.
6. What you learned, in two or three specific points.
7. What you changed in your practice as a result.
8. The evidence: a certificate, notes, slides or a supervision record.

Most schemes also want reflection in a set format. The NMC asks for five written reflective accounts on its approved form, each linked to the Code. The RCVS says activities only count as CPD once you have reflected on them. RICS now asks for a learning outcome for each activity and an annual reflective statement. Several schemes require their own platform: the RCVS’s 1CPD, the CIPD’s My CPD Records tool, the GOC’s MyCPD and RICS’s online recording.

Keep your record somewhere you control. The HCPC points out that your CPD record is personal and should stay accessible if you leave your employer.

Employers need something different: a record of who has completed which mandatory training and when it is due again. Our guide to CPD requirements for HR professionals covers that in its section “Building a training matrix that survives scrutiny”.

Which professions don’t have set CPD hours?

More professions than you might expect. “No set hours” does not mean “no requirement”; it means something else is measured.

• Teachers in England. No national CPD hours requirement. The closest thing to a fixed rule is safeguarding: Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 says all staff should have safeguarding and child protection training at induction, regularly updated, plus updates at least annually.
• Doctors. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges says there is no regulatory requirement to show a set number of CPD credits; annual appraisal and revalidation do the work.
• Solicitors. The SRA repealed its CPD hours regulations on 1 November 2016. Its FAQ is blunt: there is no minimum.
• Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Six records a year, no hours.
• HCPC registrants. Five standards and a random audit.
• Social workers in England. A minimum number of pieces of CPD, not hours.
• Care workers in England. No statutory CPD. The duty sits with the provider under regulation 18 of the Regulated Activities Regulations 2014.
• Architects (ARB), HR professionals and CIMA accountants. Activities, records and a CPD cycle, with no prescribed hours.
• Estate agents, electricians and assessors. No statutory CPD scheme, but other duties: anti-money laundering training for agents, the competence duty in electrical safety law, and awarding organisation requirements for assessors.

The absence of an hours target makes the record more important, not less. Without a number to point to, the only proof you kept up to date is what you wrote down.

How should employers manage CPD for staff in regulated roles?

Regulator CPD is the individual professional’s responsibility: the NMC, GDC or HCPC holds the registrant to account, not the employer. But employers carry duties of their own, and the two overlap.

In health and social care, regulation 18 of the Regulated Activities Regulations 2014 requires providers to give staff appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal. It goes further for registered professionals, who must be enabled to provide evidence to their regulator that they continue to meet its professional standards. In financial services, TC 2.1.15R puts the 35-hour duty on the firm. Regulation 24 of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 requires firms in scope to train relevant employees regularly and keep a written record of it, which is why AML training requirements apply whatever an individual’s CPD position.

In practice, managing CPD for staff in regulated roles comes down to four habits:

• Know every registered employee’s scheme and renewal date, and check registration status before it lapses.
• Give protected time for learning people cannot do alone, such as supervision, team learning and case reviews.
• Keep mandatory training records separate from personal CPD records, so neither is mistaken for the other.
• Cover the shared compliance topics once, for everyone, so registered staff can spend their own CPD time on clinical or technical learning.

For the shared topics, Nexis CPD’s team pricing starts at 5 staff: £6 a course place, with places lasting 12 months. After paying, you get a portal to add staff, choose their courses and track who has finished. With fewer than 5 staff, every course is £9 and any three cost £18.

Do CPD-accredited courses count towards regulator CPD?

Sometimes, and only for part of the requirement. Nexis CPD courses are £9 CPD-accredited awareness courses. Where your regulator or body accepts self-directed or non-verifiable learning, a course that is relevant to your practice, logged with its certificate and a short reflection, can count as CPD. Topics that apply across many professions include Data Protection and GDPR Awareness, Safeguarding Adults Level 1, Anti Money Laundering (AML) Awareness and Infection Prevention and Control Awareness.

Be clear about what they do not do. They are not participatory learning for NMC revalidation, they carry no GOC provider points, and they only count as GDC verifiable CPD if their evidence meets the GDC’s criteria. They do not replace revalidation activities, Driver CPC periodic training, gas competence reassessment, SIA licence-linked or refresher qualifications, or any training your regulator specifies. They are not Ofqual-regulated qualifications.

£9 per course. CPD accredited, 100% online, verifiable e-certificate. Pay for 2, get 3 — any 3 courses for £18.

Frequently asked questions

How many CPD hours do nurses need?

Nurses, midwives and nursing associates need 35 hours of CPD in the three years between NMC revalidations, and at least 20 of those hours must include participatory learning with other professionals. Revalidation also requires 450 practice hours, five pieces of practice-related feedback, five written reflective accounts and a reflective discussion.

Do teachers have to do CPD hours?

Not in England: there is no national CPD hours requirement for teachers, although Keeping Children Safe in Education expects safeguarding training at induction and updates at least annually. In Scotland, the SNCT teachers’ contract includes “a contractual requirement to complete a maximum of 35 hours” of CPD a year, and GTCS Professional Update must be confirmed every five years.

Does online CPD count?

Usually, but often only towards part of the requirement. Online learning generally counts as self-directed or non-participatory CPD. Whether it counts towards verifiable, participatory or structured hours depends on your scheme’s rules, and some schemes, such as Driver CPC, cap e-learning or accept only approved training.

What is verifiable CPD?

Verifiable CPD is learning you can prove was relevant to your practice, with evidence that you completed it and a link to a learning outcome. ACCA, for example, treats an activity as verifiable if it was relevant to your career, you can explain how you applied it, and you can provide evidence.

What happens if you don’t complete CPD?

With a statutory regulator, you usually cannot renew your registration, and you cannot practise while it has lapsed or been removed. Professional bodies can withdraw membership, and some impose penalties: RICS issues a fixed penalty caution for a first breach of its CPD rule.

How do I record CPD?

Record each activity when you do it: the date, the real time spent, what it was, which category it counts towards, why you chose it, what you learned, what you changed in practice, and your evidence. Use your regulator’s template or platform where one is required.

General information — always check your regulator’s current rules. This guide summarises the CPD requirements published by each regulator and professional body as checked on 16 October 2026; rules change, and many vary between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Nexis CPD courses are CPD-accredited awareness training, not regulated qualifications, and they do not replace any regulator-specified CPD, revalidation, licence or reassessment requirement.