UK Nursing and Midwifery Council may consider fee increase
Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) announced that it seeks approval to launch a public consultation on raising its registration fee for the first time in a decade. The regulator has kept its fee frozen since 2015, which has led to a 28 % real-terms drop in income and an estimated £180 million in lost revenue up to the end of the current financial year. In addition to expanding the number of professionals it regulates (from 686,811 in 2015 to 853,707 now) and rising demands on its “Fitness to Practise” function (up 21 % over the decade), the NMC has already moved to cut costs—proposing to reduce its workforce by 145 roles (about 10 % of its headcount). The proposed fee increase is positioned as necessary to underpin the regulator’s transformation programme, improve its oversight of education and standards, embed equity and diversity initiatives, and maintain its public protection role. The NMC emphasised that if the consultation proceeds, it will invite input from nurses, midwives, nursing associates, students and the wider public. Critics, such as the union UNISON, responded by saying that increasing fees at a time when the nursing workforce is already underpaid and facing inflationary pressures is unfair.