Accredited Registers Resources

We require that where the parties, complaints and facts are the same, Accredited Registers accept professional conduct decisions made by other Accredited Registers. This relates to a registrant’s behaviour, and to competence in the same occupation. Where a register does not intend to accept a previous decision, it should make the reasons for this clear and consider the legal implications of its intentions.

Our Standards protect the public by ensuring applicants and registrants who have been sanctioned by one register will have those decisions recognised and considered as part of any application or continued registration decision. We want the public to feel secure that in choosing a registrant from an Accredited Register, they will avoid practitioners who have been found to be unsafe, whether through dishonest or predatory behaviour or through lack of competence.

We set out the type of information used to determine whether our Standards have been met in The Standards for Accredited Registers: Core Expectations and Evidence

For Standard 9: The Registration Process we assess whether: ‘Only people with suitable qualifications, skills and knowledge and who are professionally suitable can register with the organisation.’ We may, in assessing this Standard, ask for evidence of policies and processes for recognising professional conduct decisions by Accredited Registers, regulators or other regulatory bodies. 

For Standard 4: Engaging and working with others we assess whether: ‘There is collaborative working between regulators, registers and other relevant organisations, including appropriate exchange of information related to risk and harm to the public.’ We may, in assessing this Standard, ask for evidence that the register is able to meet the expectations of the Accredited Registers Collaborative Information Sharing Protocol, and Memoranda of Understanding or Information Sharing Agreements with partners in protecting the public.

Through the use of the word ‘recognise’, it is expected that Accredited Registers will accept the professional conduct decisions of other registers, unless to do so would be unlawful. Professional conduct decisions include both the behaviour of registrants and their competence. 

We assess Accredited Registers against our Standards so that everyone can have confidence in the decisions made. We therefore expect, for example, that a registrant who has been removed from a register for sexual misconduct or dishonesty will not be admitted to any other Accredited Register. We also expect registers in the same occupation to recognise each other’s decisions regarding lack of competence, except where the facts turn on such matters as seniority of practice and specialisms. 

We accept that there may be some cases where an Accredited Register can clearly distinguish that the professional conduct action taken by one register is not relevant to their own register. For example, where a registrant practises a number of different occupations such as counselling and complementary therapy, lack of competence in counselling may not necessarily be relevant to consideration by a complementary therapy register. We also accept that one register may need to make enquiries of another, to satisfy itself that it can place reliance on the findings of the other.