Status

A doctor must hold both registration and a licence to practise to be able to (amongst other things):

• work as a doctor in the National Health Service (NHS) or in private practice
• prescribe drugs
• sign certificates required for statutory purposes (death certificates, etc).

For more details please see our legal privileges and obligations of registration (opens in a new window).

Any registered doctor (with or without a licence to practise) has agreed to abide by the principles and values in our Good medical practice guidance (opens in a new window).

This status came into use on 16 November 2009.

You can find out what clinical duties the doctor is allowed to do with each registration type by clicking on the links below (links open in a new window):

• Provisional registration
• Full registration
• Entry on the Specialist Register
• Entry on the GP Register
• Temporary registration

To see the doctor’s history, choose Doctor History from the menu on the left:

Provisional registration with a licence to practise only allows doctors to participate in programmes for provisionally registered doctors. This means that they can only practise in approved Foundation Year 1 posts. Successful completion of such posts is marked by a certificate of experience. Most doctors complete this within 12 months.

Doctors are allowed to hold provisional registration for a maximum of three years and 30 days (1,125 days).

The law does not allow provisionally registered doctors to undertake any other type of post. That exclusion applies to service posts at F1 level, regardless of whether the post is substantive or locum. Provisionally registered doctors may only undertake locum appointments for training (LAT) posts with the approval of their medical school and where the Foundation School has been involved in the recruitment of the doctor to that post, the post is part of a programme and leads to a certificate of experience.