Go to: Main Menu
Information for employers
The GMC has a dedicated service to help employers and contracting authorities make pre-employment checks.
Please ensure you read about and understand the dedicated service for employers and all of your obligations as an employer of doctors.
Contents
1. Holding GMC registration
2. Help for employers
3. Pre-employment checks
4. Post-employment checks
5. GMC reference numbers
6. Checking a doctor's identity
1. Holding GMC registration
Doctors need to be both registered and hold a licence to practise with the GMC to practise medicine in the UK. It is illegal for doctors to work in clinical practice in the UK Health Services if they are not registered with a licence to practise. You can check a doctor’s registration status on our online Register.
The type of work that requires doctors to be registered with a licence to practise includes:
- Working as a doctor in the UK health services.
- Prescribing drugs, the sale of which is restricted by law.
- Signing medical certificates required for statutory purposes (death certificates, etc.).
Doctors who work in private practice in the UK must also be registered with a licence to practise with the GMC.
2. Help for employers
The GMC has a dedicated service to help employers and contracting authorities make pre-employment checks and post-employment checks.
If you employ or contract with doctors, please contact us or email registrationhelp@gmc-uk.org for details of how to access this service.
Failure to carry out these checks could put the safety, and even the lives, of patients at risk.
Full information is provided below.
3. Pre-employment checks
You should always check that a doctor is both registered (with the appropriate type of registration) and holds a licence to practise with the GMC as part of your pre-employment checks.
Doctors who are training in Foundation Year 1 (F1) are required to hold provisional registration with a licence to practise; all other doctors who work as registered medical practitioners in the UK must hold full registration with a licence to practise.
Doctors appointed as consultants or GPs must, in addition, be on the Specialist or GP Register as appropriate. (Please note: There are exemptions to this - for full details of these exemptions please see the information on Specialist Registration and GP Registration on our general information about registration and licensing page on the full website.)
Do not rely on a locum agency to check a doctor's status on the register for you. If a doctor has previously been employed elsewhere in the UK, you still need to check their registration and licensing details, as their status on the Register may have changed since they were last employed.
Neither the due date of an annual retention fee nor an annual registration confirmation letter is evidence that a doctor is registered with a licence to practise.
Neither are:
- Certificates of Completion of Training (CCT)
- Certificates of Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR)
- Certificates of Eligibility for GP Registration (CEGPR).
And none of these confirm that a doctor is currently on the Specialist Register or the GP Register.
A doctor's application for registration with a licence to practise must be granted before they can actually start working, and you must confirm their status on the Register with the GMC before allowing the doctor to start work.
Preparing to take the PLAB test does not mean that a doctor can work in clinical practice in the UK health service. The doctor must hold registration with a licence to practise.
What to check
The checks you should carry out with the GMC are summarised below.
- Does the doctor hold the appropriate type of registration (full website) for the post in which you are employing them?
- Does the doctor hold a licence to practise?
- Do any conditions or restrictions apply?
- Is the doctor currently undergoing investigation?
- Does the GMC reference number, which the doctor has given you, match the details shown on the GMC's online Register?
- Are you sure of the doctor's identity?
- If the doctor is hoping to work as a GP in the UK health service, are they on the GP Register?*
- If the doctor is hoping to work as a consultant in the UK health service, are they on the Specialist Register?
* If you are checking to enter a GP onto a performers list, sight of the doctor's Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) or Certificate of Eligibility for GP Registration (CEGPR) does not fulfil the legal requirement that a doctor practising as a GP in the UK Health Services, other than a trainee, is on the GP Register.
How to check
You should make these checks by using our dedicated service for employers and contracting authorities. Please contact us or email registrationhelp@gmc-uk.org for details of how to access this service.
These checks will tell you whether the doctor you are employing is both registered and holds a licence to practise with the GMC and whether any special conditions apply.
Extra checks for employers
NHS Employers has produced a set of 'Employment Check Standards' (external link) which provides useful information about all the other pre-employment checks you should make.
You should check that the doctor is proficient in the use of English.
4. Post-employment checks
List of Registered Medical Practitioners
You should use our online Register to check a doctor’s registration status on the full website. Please note that some smart phones do not support full website functionality and you may need to use a computer.
The online Register is in the public domain and gives details of the doctor's:
- GMC reference number
- given names
- surname (including any former name)
- gender
- status on the Register, including whether the doctor holds a licence to practise
- any publicly available fitness to practise history since 20 October 2005
- year and place of primary medical degree
- date of provisional registration (where applicable)
- date of full registration (where applicable)
- entry on the Specialist and/or GP Register
- details of employment restrictions
- date when annual retention fee payment is due
Administrative checks
Doctors may be erased from the Register for administrative reasons, such as failure to pay their annual retention fee or failure to maintain an effective registered address. We therefore strongly recommend that you make regular checks on the GMC status of all doctors in your employment, to minimise any unnecessary disruption to your services caused by such erasures.
Doctors who discover that they have been removed from the Register under our administrative procedures should contact us urgently on 0161 923 6602 (+44 161 923 6602 from outside the UK) so that they can apply to be restored without delay.
Fitness to practise checks
We will automatically inform you if any doctor you currently employ or have contracted with is subject to a GMC investigation.
You should inform us if you judge that the fitness to practise of a doctor you are employing or contracting with may be impaired. Our Health Professional's Guide - How to Refer a Doctor to the GMC page on the full website provides further information.
Other information
If you need other information relating to a doctor's registration or licence to practise which is not in the public domain, you should use our dedicated information service for employers.
Please telephone 0161 923 6602 (+44 161 923 6602 from outside the UK) or email registrationhelp@gmc-uk.org for details of how to access this service.
5. GMC reference numbers
When doctors first make contact with the GMC they are given a seven digit reference number which they keep throughout their professional career. This reference number is therefore a unique identifier.
Checking the GMC reference number
Having a number does not mean that the doctor is currently on the Register, so it is important that you check the doctor's registration and licence to practise details with the GMC. You also need to do this to ensure that the GMC reference number you have been given is correct, and that it belongs to the doctor that you want to employ. Under no circumstances should a doctor use another doctor's GMC reference number.
Displaying names and GMC reference numbers
Paragraph 35 of Good Medical Practice requires doctors to make their reference numbers available to enable patients and the public to identify them easily.
We look to employers to help doctors comply with this requirement, by displaying their GMC reference numbers wherever possible - for example on stationery, door signs, name plaques.
View our guidance to doctors about names and GMC reference numbers on the full website.
6. Checking a doctor's identity
We require all new applicants for registration with a licence to practise, or those restoring their name to the Register, to undergo an identity check as part of the application process. This includes taking their photograph, which can be provided to employers to assist with confirmation of the identity and registration and licence to practise status of the doctor. The identity check requires the doctor to attend our offices in either Manchester or London.
A certificate of registration, proof of entry on the Register letter, or confirmation that a doctor is registered with or without a licence to practise with the GMC is not evidence of a doctor's identity. You must undertake your own identity checks when employing a doctor, for example asking for their original passport or an original EEA identity card.
We hold photograph records for:
- All UK graduates who were granted registration after 1 July 2005
- All doctors taking the PLAB test from 1 May 2004
- All EEA doctors who were granted registration after 1 April 2005
- All doctors restored to the Register from 1 June 2005
- All other newly registered doctors from 1 August 2005
You can check the photo id held by the GMC for doctors by contacting us and asking for a copy of the photo held on our system. Please ensure that you provide an email address or fax number to which we can send the photo. We aim to respond to all enquiries within five working days.
If you have any doubts about a doctor's identity please contact us.