How do I register my private service with the CQC?

This guide covers England. Before you start, confirm that you need to register at all by reading do I need to be registered with the CQC?

Step 1: Decide exactly what you are registering

Three decisions shape the whole application:

• The provider. The legal entity that will carry on the service: you as a sole trader, a partnership or a company. It must match how you set up the business. See should I set up a company?
• The regulated activities. For most private GP services this is treatment of disease, disorder or injury, sometimes with diagnostic and screening procedures, surgical procedures or family planning. See which regulated activities you need.
• The locations. Each address the service is provided from, or managed from for an online service.

Step 2: Put the right people in place

Role	Needed when	What it involves
Individual provider	You register as a sole trader	You are legally responsible. If you run the service day to day, you do not need a separate registered manager.
Registered manager	The provider is a company or partnership, or an individual who will not run the service day to day	A separate manager application, sent with the provider application. The manager shares legal responsibility for meeting the regulations.
Nominated individual	The provider is a company or other organisation	The person who supervises the management of the regulated activity on the organisation’s behalf. A small company often names the GP director.

In a one-doctor company, the same GP is often the director, nominated individual and registered manager. That is allowed, but the CQC will expect you to show you understand each role.

Step 3: Get the right DBS check

Each individual provider, registered partner and registered manager needs an enhanced DBS check with the appropriate barred list check: adults, children, or both if you see all ages. It must be no more than 12 months old when you apply.

• As a GMC-registered doctor, your check does not need to be countersigned by the CQC, but you must post the original paper certificate to the CQC. Certificates from the DBS Update Service are not accepted.
• People who are not registered health professionals, such as a non-clinical manager, need a CQC-countersigned enhanced check.

The CQC says a DBS certificate can take up to 60 days, and you cannot apply until you have it. How to obtain one is covered in getting a DBS check for private practice.

Step 4: Prepare your documents

At the time of review, every new provider had to send:

• a statement of purpose
• policies on complaints, consent, equality, diversity and human rights, governance and quality assurance, infection prevention and control, medicines management and prescribing, recruitment, and safeguarding
• a public and employer’s liability insurance quote or certificate
• a financial viability statement signed by an accountancy firm or an FCA-regulated bank. The CQC lists corporate providers as exempt, so if you trade through a company, check with the CQC whether you need one.
• a building control final certificate, if your premises needed building regulations approval.

The statement of purpose is a legal document. It sets out who the provider is, your aims and objectives, and for each location the address, the service, who it is for, the regulated activities and the registered manager. The CQC publishes templates in four parts.

For GPs and independent consulting doctors, the CQC may also ask for a business continuity plan, a freedom to speak up policy, a health and safety risk assessment, a list of risk assessments, a medical emergency policy, a significant events policy, a staff training matrix and a staffing structure. Do not send these with the application, but have them ready.

Online services complete an additional form. For applications from 22 June 2026, they must also send an inclusion and exclusion criteria policy, a medical emergency policy and a medical indemnity quote or policy that covers online services.

Write policies for your service. Generic templates that mention staff, wards or services you do not have are an easy way to fail the completeness check.

Step 5: Submit

1. Download the current new provider application form from the CQC website, plus any additional forms, for example for extra locations.
2. Complete it yourself. The CQC says the application must be completed by the applicant.
3. Email the forms, any manager applications and all supporting documents together to the address given on the CQC’s forms page. Large files can be zipped and split across several emails.
4. Post your original DBS certificate if you are a registered health professional.

Only apply when your premises, equipment and staff are ready. The CQC says it cannot hold applications that are not ready, and it rejects incomplete ones. A resubmission counts as a new application and does not keep its place in the queue.

Step 6: Assessment

The CQC first checks that the forms and statement of purpose are complete and that the supporting documents are accurate and relevant. It then assesses the application, which may include:

• a fit person interview with you and the registered manager, by phone, online or in person
• a site visit, which the CQC says is needed for most new registrations
• a discussion with the nominated individual.

If you cannot agree a date within 28 days of being contacted, the CQC may return the application or propose to refuse it. Prepare for the interview by knowing your own policies and how you would handle a safeguarding concern, a significant event, a complaint and a medical emergency.

Step 7: The decision

The CQC emails either a notice of decision granting registration, possibly with the conditions you agreed, or a notice of proposal to refuse or to add other conditions. You have 28 days to make representations against a notice of proposal, and you can appeal a final decision to the First-tier Tribunal.

You can start providing the regulated activity only once registration is granted. Timescales are covered in how long CQC registration takes.

After you are registered

• Pay the annual fee when invoiced.
• Keep your statement of purpose up to date and tell the CQC about changes. If your company or partnership changes its name or trading name, notify the CQC and then apply to change the name on your registration. Changing legal entity, for example from sole trader to company, means registering again as a new provider.
• Apply to vary your registration before you add a regulated activity or a location.
• Send statutory notifications, for example of certain incidents or a registered manager’s absence.

Start collecting evidence for your first assessment straight away. Compliance platforms such as QCS and GP TeamNet hold policies, logs and training records. Practice Control Tower, which is currently taking a waitlist, is built around CQC inspection readiness: a register of requirements organised by the five key questions, with an owner and evidence for each (practicecontroltower.co.uk). See systems that help you prepare for a CQC inspection.

In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

The CQC only registers services in England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own registration processes, run by Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA). Healthcare Improvement Scotland says processing takes a minimum of six months.