Policy paper

Professional Qualifications Bill factsheet: Information publication requirements

Updated 3 November 2021

This policy paper was withdrawn on 21 February 2023

Find out about Professional Qualifications Act 2022.

This is one of a series of factsheets exploring themes in the Professional Qualifications (PQ) Bill.

The PQ Bill was introduced to Parliament in May 2021. It will revoke an interim system for the recognition of professional qualifications from overseas, derived from EU law, which often means preference is given to EEA and Swiss professionals. The PQ Bill enshrines the autonomy of regulators in determining whether individuals are fit to practise. Amongst other matters, it provides the ability to empower regulators to conclude recognition agreements with their overseas counterparts.

Summary

This factsheet explains what information UK regulators will need to publish and why. It also explains how the Assistance Centre will support the availability of information for professionals wishing to practise a profession, both in and outside the UK. This factsheet does not constitute guidance on how to comply with measures in the PQ Bill once enacted.

Why is there a need to publish information about regulated professions?

Where a profession is regulated by law, an individual must fulfil certain legal requirements to carry out certain professional activities or use a protected title, such as ‘architect’. Information about these legal requirements is essential for anyone wishing to understand the entry and practice requirements for regulated professions.

A lack of information or incomplete information can therefore be a barrier to those seeking to practise a profession. Such barriers may prevent individuals from accessing jobs and establishing careers in regulated professions.

Why is the government introducing information publication requirements?

Respondents to the October 2020 Recognition of Professional Qualifications and Regulation of Professions: Call for Evidence suggested there was scope to improve the information available to individuals on how to enter professions: see the summary of the responses and the Call for Evidence. The government recognises the benefits of making sure the right information is available to individuals, and that many regulators already publish helpful information. The PQ Bill therefore includes targeted measures to increase transparency across all regulators and help individuals have the information they need to access professions.

The PQ Bill will provide a legal basis for the continuation of an Assistance Centre, currently operating as the UK Centre for Professional Qualifications. The Assistance Centre will continue to signpost individuals to the relevant regulator in the UK. Measures in the PQ Bill will mean it provides a single point of information on the entry requirements of regulated professions in the UK, complementing the information published by regulators, and will support individuals to have their overseas professional qualifications recognised in the UK. It will also provide information on the entry requirements for overseas professions to individuals with UK professional qualifications, helping those individuals provide their services in overseas markets.

What information needs to be published?

UK regulators will have to publish information related to the professions they regulate, including:

• the requirements for entering the profession such as qualification, training and examination
• any ongoing obligations for remaining in the profession, for example, regular assessments for accreditation
• any cost imposed by the regulator for entering and remaining in the profession
• general information on recognition decisions the regulator has made, including the number of decisions and details of qualifications and experience gained overseas or in another part of the UK

The information requirements, which many regulators already meet, are described in full in Clause 8 of the PQ Bill.

The Assistance Centre will publish information relating to the entry requirements for regulated professions in the UK and for overseas professions. As part of this, the Assistance Centre may request that regulators provide information they hold about the professions they regulate, such as entry and practice requirements. This is outlined in Clause 7 of the PQ Bill.

What does it mean in practice?

Regulators will normally own the information outlined in Clause 8 of the PQ Bill, such as the entry and practice requirements of the profession and the number of recognition decisions they have made. Once the PQ Bill is enacted, regulators will need to publish information on their website. For many regulators, this will be a continuation of their current practices.

The information on a regulator’s website must be publicly accessible and kept up to date. A regulator should create and maintain a website in cases where they do not already have one.

If the regulator currently does not publish some of the required information, they have 6 months from the Bill coming into force to collate the information, design their website content and publish the information. There are some exceptions to this approach, which reflects the different regulatory arrangements of professions and the information regulators are expected to hold:

• if any of the specified requirements are not relevant to the regulator, the regulator only needs to publish a statement explaining that they do not hold the information
• if there are multiple regulators operating for one profession, they do not all have to publish the same information. Regulators can agree how the information publication requirement is best divided between the relevant regulators and signpost between websites.

The PQ Bill allows the UK government and devolved administrations to adjust the information publication requirements at a later date if, for example, further information held by regulators would support individuals entering professions. This would be through the UK government or devolved administration introducing regulations, which would state when regulators would have to make any additional information publicly available.

UK regulators should also provide updated information to the Assistance Centre if, for example, there are changes to their profession’s entry requirements.

Case studies to outline how the information publication requirements would work in practice

Scenario 1: A profession with multiple regulators where not all have to publish the same information

1. Where a profession has multiple regulators, the regulators can, if they so wish, come together and agree that one of them publishes all the information specified in the PQ Bill, while the others publish a statement which directs users to that single regulator’s web content. Or they can publish the information relevant only to their own regulatory function.

2. It is not a legal requirement for regulators to come to an agreement. The ways in which the regulators reach this agreement and whether one, some, or all the regulators publish the information is for regulators to manage amongst themselves.

Scenario 2: Professions with one regulator, and there is a change to entry and practice requirements

1. If the regulator, hypothetically, changes the fee they charge a professional to be registered, then they should update this information on their website content as soon as possible.