Changes to legislation affecting international registration

The General Dental Council has made important changes today to their legislation governing international routes to registration, as detailed in their news bulletin below:

Changes to legislation affecting international registration

Important changes have today been made to our legislation governing international routes to registration. The reforms make some immediate changes affecting some Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) candidates, and those with an overseas diploma in dentistry who want to apply to the GDC register. There are also more fundamental changes that provide us with additional flexibility and powers to amend our routes to registration for applicants with overseas qualifications.

Our public protection role includes maintaining a register of dental professionals who meet our standards, and those who qualify outside the UK make up a significant proportion of the dental team. While the reforms will mean changes to our processes for international registration, it is important to stress that the standards we apply for registration have not changed.

The immediate changes made will mean:

• Those who have been unable to sit Part 2 of our Overseas Registration Exam, through no fault of their own when it was suspended during the pandemic, will now have more time to sit the exam, but will need to act decisively to ensure they secure a place before their time limit expires.
• Those who hold an overseas diploma in dentistry only (degree or diploma that qualifies someone as a dentist), will no longer be able to apply to join the register as a dental care professional (DCP). The change aligns our overseas qualification requirements with those for UK applicants.

The reforms update the outdated and overly prescriptive legislative framework that has prevented us from improving our processes or increasing capacity. The reforms made today provide a more flexible legislative framework, and powers to enable the modernisation of rules and processes for the registration of those who qualify outside the UK.

Our proposals for new rules and processes for the ORE will be prioritised. The development of new rules for the ORE will take some time to develop and will not be a quick fix to access or workforce issues facing UK dentistry. We will be consulting with our stakeholders to ensure the revised process meets the needs of applicants, the public and the sector.

Find out about international registration reforms on our website.