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Voluntary erasure - page 2 of 7

Why choose voluntary erasure?

Voluntary erasure is free of charge, and has clear advantages as a means of giving up registration:

• It provides assurance that the online List of Registered Medical Practitioners (opens in a new window) describes your status accurately - a doctor who takes voluntary erasure will be shown as 'Not Registered - Having relinquished registration'.
  
  
• It can be much faster than allowing your registration to lapse by ceasing to pay the annual retention fee (which can take three months or more).
  
  
• You can decide the date on which your name is erased, up to three months ahead.
  
  
• Once your voluntary erasure application has been granted and your name has been erased from the register, we will refund any unused calendar quarters of your annual retention fee. The only exceptions are doctors who hold provisional registration or doctors who are in their first year of full registration – these doctors are not eligible for a refund.
  
  
• Doctors whose names have been erased on a voluntary basis can be restored to the register free of charge (the annual retention fee will still apply). This is not the case with other types of erasure. Doctors whose names have been erased for administrative reasons (for example, for failure to pay their annual retention fee) are required to pay an additional restoration fee should they decide to return to the register. Please see our fees section.