House of Commons – May 27, 2015

That this House notes that the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) is increasing its mandatory fees for all 16 regulated professions by a massive 12.5 per cent on 1 August 2015; further notes that this follows a five per cent increase in 2014, breaches an undertaking not to review fees again until 2016, and affects 330,000 dedicated staff, from paramedics to social workers, occupational therapists to physiotherapists, across the UK; further notes that less than a third of the increase is accounted for by a levy on HCPC to fund the Professional Standards Authority (PSA); is aware that these dedicated workers have suffered five years of pay freeze and pay restraint; understands that the overwhelming majority of respondents to a consultation by HCPC were against such a massive increase including 97 per cent of UNISON members surveyed; is astonished that HCPC ran a surplus of £1.3 million and increased its general reserves by nearly £1 million in 2014 but is pressing ahead with little public and no Parliamentary scrutiny; calls on HCPC to delay any rise until the Health Select Committee holds its annual accountability hearing and until it fully considers the cost savings that enactment of the Law Commission draft Bill Regulation of health and social care professionals will enable; and further calls on the Secretary of State for Health to resume central funding of the PSA, to instruct HCPC to reduce the costs of unwarranted investigations and hearings before raising fees and to protect registrants in future from fee increases that exceed registrants’ annual pay awards.