CORU dietitian CPD: the requirement, the 2024 audit and how selection works

Dietitians on the CORU register carry the same continuing professional development duty as every other registrant, and the Dietitians Registration Board has now run a CPD audit of its own. The published detail is thinner than for some professions, but what exists is specific, and the mechanics matter more than the headline number.

The requirement

Thirty CPD credits in every 12-month period, for every registrant — full-time, part-time, on leave or working abroad — with no carry-forward. Credits are self-determined on the basis that one hour of new or enhanced learning equals one credit.

And nothing is accredited. CORU states that it "does not have any role in the development, delivery or accreditation of CPD activities", and that "Each registrant is responsible for identifying suitable CPD activities that will meet their own learning needs". There is no approved provider list, which means a course cannot be disqualified for lacking a badge and equally cannot be validated by having one. Guidance is at coru.ie.

The 2024 dietitians audit

CORU's Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024 records that the Dietitians Registration Board "conducted a CPD audit for registrants covering the period from 1 November 2024 to 13 December 2024, auditing a total of 52 registrants." That audit sat within a programme of 245 registrants selected across the year.

Two details are worth more than the number. First, the audit window was about six weeks — this is a defined submission period, not a rolling request. Second, CORU records that a CPD Policy "was introduced ahead of the 2024 audits for radiographers, dietitians, and speech and language therapists", so the 2024 dietitians cohort was the first assessed under it.

We have deliberately not attributed outcome figures to this audit. CORU's 2024 report does not publish compliant and non-compliant counts per profession in the material we could read, and its year-in-review infographic shows three audit numbers against three professions in a layout that does not reliably say which belongs to which. The 52 is confirmed as dietitians; the rest is not, and we are not guessing it.

How selection actually works

This is the part registrants most often misunderstand. CORU's audit policy provides that "A random sample of eligible registrants is selected from the register of the profession", and that "only those who have been on the register for the full audit period are eligible for selection" — so a recently registered dietitian is not in the first draw.

On top of that random sample, some registrants are selected automatically. The policy states that those granted a deferral, deemed non-compliant, or recorded as non-engagement in the previous audit "will automatically be selected for audit", in addition to the random cohort. Being audited once therefore raises your chance of being audited again, and a deferral is not a free pass — it guarantees a return visit.

Neither current CORU policy document states a percentage of the register. The 5 and 10 per cent figures that circulate come from 2018 trend reports for other professions and are not current policy. Anyone quoting an audit probability for dietitians is inventing it.

Outcomes and what follows

There are three outcomes. Compliant — a record submitted within the window that meets the Board's requirements. Non-compliant — not submitted in time, or submitted and found not to meet the requirements. Non-engagement — no record and no deferral request.

The escalation is specific: CORU's policy provides that if a registrant receives an outcome of non-compliance or non-engagement in more than one audit, a Fitness to Practise complaint of professional misconduct may be raised. A single poor audit is a feedback exercise; a second one is a conduct question.

Deferrals, and the reason most often refused

CORU is direct about this, and employers should read it before promising staff a deferral: "workload and work-related commitments are not a sufficient reason to defer an audit and such requests will be refused." The ground that does work is leave — you can request a deferral where more than six months of your leave fell within the audit period.

In the 2025 audits across other professions, deferral requests ran at 122 of 462 registrants called, so asking is common. Being granted is not automatic.

Records

CORU's answer on how long to keep CPD documentation is "for as long as you are on the Register", and it adds that you should keep it independently of any audit requirement. There is no number of years.

One trap to avoid: CORU's audit policy refers to records and deferral requests being retained for 30 days following a Board meeting and then destroyed. That is CORU's destruction schedule for copies you submitted to it. It is not a retention period for your own portfolio, and treating it as one would leave you with nothing.

For the profession with the richest published audit data, see our analysis of CORU social worker CPD audits, and for the radiographers' trend report see the radiographers CPD audit findings. For how Ireland treats accredited provider status where it does exist, see accredited CPD as a statutory status in Ireland.