The BDA is disappointed by the decision of the Health and Care Professions Council to approve an 18% increase in registration fees from October 2019.
BDA Chair Caroline Bovey said "It is hugely disappointing that the HCPC has gone ahead with this unjustifiable increase despite the overwhelming opposition from front line AHPs and professional bodies. As our consultation response made clear, this represents a significantly above inflation increase at a time when healthcare worker wages have been squeezed.
"The fight against this has not ended however and we will be raising this with MPs and Peers. We would urge all our members to ask their MP to sign UNISON's Early Day Motion opposing this change."
The Early Day Motion, tabled by Jim Cunningham MP, already has support from 30 MPs, with more signatures being added regularly.
The 18% increase in fees means our members' registration fees will rise from £90 to £106. Although this is the first proposed increase since 2015, it is still well above the rate of inflation over that period (roughly 7.5%).
The 2015 fee increase saw the renewal fee jump from £80 to £90 per year with a similar level of increase to most of the other fees. Prior to that, renewal fees had increased from £76 to £80 in 2013. Taken together, this would reflect a nearly 40% increase in fees in just seven years.
In our consultation response the BDA made is absolutely clear that the HCPC has not done enough to justify the increase, and that any work it wishes to do to improve its services should be paid for from efficiencies, not a fees increase.