GDC and the ARF: Further Insights
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- Published: Thursday, 06 November 2025 09:50
- Written by Peter Ingle
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The recent announcement by the GDC of a 12.4% rise in the Annual Registration Fee (ARF) has understandably been poorly received by registrants, or at least those aware of the increase. The increase has been applied to both dentists and DCP‘s, and will take their fees to £698 and 108 respectively.
The GDC managed to announce these figures on the same day that the Government declared that it could only offer NHS staff a 2.5% pay rise in 2026, since anything more would threaten the “speed and delivery” of the 10-Year Health Plan.
The GDC is no stranger to problematic ARF increases. In 2014 The GDC pushed through a 55% increase from £576 to £890, despite losing a judicial review bought by the BDA which ruled that the GDC had acted unlawfully during its consultation process. Mr Justice Cranston found that there had been a procedural error in the ARF consultation process and highlighted a number of other significant failings by the GDC. However, he declared that the fee increase should stand in response to the GDC pleading that there would be a breakdown in the annual renewal process if the increase did not go ahead. In essence the GDC played the “too big to fail” card.
Following this the GDC held the ARF at £890 for five years before reducing it to £680 for 2020. There was a further reduction for 2024 to £621, at which it remained in 2025. With this in mind the overall change from £576 to £621 over 12 years does not seem quite so precipitous.
Of course the years at £890 have allowed the GDC to build up a substantial cash pile. The GDC insist that this is only prudent and gives them a buffer to cope with unexpected events. Readers may be familiar with the generic advice that it is wise to have a 3 to 6 month cash buffer available for unforeseen events. The GDC’s Reserves at the end of 2024 were £52.4 million. In its 2024 accounts the GDC’s operating expenditure was a little under £45 million and it ended the year with its reserves increasing by another £2.5 million.
Other healthcare regulators seem able to do things differently. As has been pointed on the GDPUK forum, the GMC, which sets its fees each April, only asks for £455. And unlike dentists, doctors are also offered substantially reduced fees by their regulator for those who wish to be registered but do not require a licence to practice - an option that was taken from retired dentists, with the GDC saying that it could not be done. There is also a reduced rate for low earners.
Despite the understandable anger over the GDC’s tone deaf fee increase, it may divert attention from the important questions about the GDC’s competency and honesty.
GDPUK has reported on numerous cases on the Council’s failure to deliver its basic function of public protection, most recently this story. GDC executives continue to talk about trust and transparency, even as they destroy the former, and continue to obscure any serious examination of their actions.
To quote BDA Past President Susie Sanderson: “What is clear from all of this is that however obstinately the GDC chooses to screw up its corporate eyes and block its corporate ears, it must ultimately face the facts of its own profound inadequacy. This has gone on long enough – someone there must accept responsibility.”
Susie Sanderson wrote this in the Faculty Dental Journal about the GDC increasing the ARF. In 2015. At the GDC, Chairs, Chief Executives and Executive Team members may come and go, but the organisation seems incapable of change.
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