A responsible officer’s introduction to registration and licensing
Joining the register
Specialist and GP applications
Our factsheet for responsible officers explains the specialist registration process, including how you can support applications of doctors under your supervision.
Licence to practise
Our factsheet on the licence to practise includes information about the licence and frequently asked questions.
Checks you should make
Changes to registration and licensing
When a doctor makes a change in their registration status – such as giving up their licence to practice – we'll send you a UD8 form. This is sometimes called a PMSS. If a doctor is giving up their registration, we'll ask you if there are any outstanding concerns about the doctor.
We'll use the information you send us to decide whether to grant a doctor's voluntary erasure. We might also contact you about doctors who previously worked for you. This is because any doctor restoring their licence or registration will need to submit details of the medical services they provided during the previous five years.
Pre-employment checks
You can read our guide on employing a doctor, which details the checks you need to make before employing a doctor. And you can find out more about the medical register and read explanations about the different types of registration. You can also read guidance on our reference numbers.
English language confirmation
We may ask you to complete an English language reference form for a doctor who has applied for registration with a licence to practise. We'll ask you to confirm that an offer of appointment has been made.
We'll also ask you whether the recruitment process included checks to make sure the doctor has the necessary knowledge of English to practise safely. If we do this, we'll ask you for information on the doctor's skills in all four language domains: reading, writing, listening and speaking. And we'll ask how these were assessed during the recruitment process.
Insurance and indemnity
You can read our guidance for doctors on insurance and indemnity. It reinforces that it's the doctor's responsibility to make sure they have appropriate insurance or indemnity arrangements. This has been a legal requirement since 2015.
We strongly advise that you get assurance about a doctor's insurance or indemnity arrangements. To support this, we've developed a list of insurance and indemnity discussion points.
You can also read our guidance on raising concerns about indemnity and insurance arrangements for doctors. We encourage you to speak to your employer liaison adviser about these concerns first, as they will be able to give you advice about thresholds and how to refer the matter to us if required.
