UK CPD retention periods: ten years to none at all

We have compared CPD retention periods across markets before. This is the UK set specifically, regulator by regulator, because the spread within one jurisdiction turns out to be wider than the spread between countries — from roughly ten years at one end to no period at all at the other, for professionals working in the same building.

The longest: the GDC, at up to ten years

Dental professionals carry by far the heaviest duty, and it is mandatory rather than advisory. The GDC's enhanced CPD guidance requires that you keep all the evidence you collect for the duration of your five-year cycle and for five years after the completed cycle, in case the GDC requests to see your CPD record. Its guidance is at gdc-uk.org, and it states the period again as five years from the end of the five-year cycle, with audit possible for up to five years after a cycle is completed.

Compounded, that is close to a decade of evidence from the start of a cycle to the end of the audit window. It is the figure most often understated in employer policies, usually as five years.

The only other mandatory period: the Bar, at three years

The Bar Standards Board sets three years as a rule, not a recommendation. Rule rQ134.4 requires barristers to retain a record of the CPD Plan and completed CPD activities for three years, and the accompanying guidance applies the same period to the written reflection. The guidance is published at barstandardsboard.org.uk.

The recommendations

Two regulators advise a period without imposing one, and the distinction matters if you are writing a policy that cites them.

CILEx Regulation — the regulator, as distinct from CILEX the professional body — recommends retaining CPD records for two years following the closure of the CPD year.

The NMC ties its recommendation to the cycle rather than a number of years: it recommends keeping your portfolio until after you complete your next revalidation. Since revalidation is three-yearly, that is in practice a rolling period of between three and six years depending on where in the cycle the evidence was generated.

The explicit nothing: the SRA

The SRA is unusually clear about setting no period, and the wording is worth quoting because it pre-empts the argument: "We do not currently specify any minimum or maximum period for retaining training records." Its continuing competence FAQs are at sra.org.uk. It adds that keeping evidence is not itself a regulatory requirement, while noting you should consider how you would demonstrate continuing competence if asked.

That is a genuinely different regulatory philosophy, not an oversight — the obligation is to be competent, and record-keeping is left as a means rather than imposed as an end.

The silent ones

The HCPC sets no retention period. Its standard requires registrants to maintain a continuous, up-to-date and accurate record of their CPD activities, and its guidance asks you to make sure you can access your record. At audit the HCPC is interested in the previous two years, which is an audit scope rather than a retention rule, and reading it as one would be a mistake.

The GPhC also sets no period in its revalidation framework, but it has something more consequential: a platform limit. The myGPhC account displays only the most recent four years of revalidation records, records cannot be downloaded directly from myGPhC, and the GPhC has stated it is removing records submitted before 2021, with data removal commencing from 1 September 2025. Registrants wanting to keep older entries have to copy and paste or take screenshots.

That combination — no retention duty, but evidence that disappears from the only place it is held — is the sharpest practical risk in this whole comparison. Anyone relying on myGPhC as their CPD archive should hold a copy elsewhere. One caveat: the GPhC page describing the removal still used the language of planning when last updated in February 2026, so confirm the current position before acting on the date.

For the GMC we could not establish a published retention period. Its CPD guidance PDF would not load, and the HTML page we could read is silent on retention, so treat the GMC position as unestablished rather than as "no period".

The spread, in one list

• GDC — five-year cycle plus five years after. Mandatory.
• BSB — three years. Mandatory rule.
• CILEx Regulation — two years after the CPD year closes. Recommended.
• NMC — until after the next revalidation. Recommended.
• SRA — explicitly no period.
• HCPC, GPhC — no period stated.
• GMC — not established.

What to do with a spread this wide

A single organisational retention period, set at the longest applicable duty and documented, is easier to defend and easier to operate than seven policies. Three traps to avoid: do not read an audit look-back window as a retention period, they are different things and the HCPC's two years is the clearest example; do not assume the employer's duty and the registrant's duty are the same, because the GDC's decade binds the dental professional and not their practice; and do not treat silence as permission to discard, since the obligation to demonstrate competence survives the absence of a stated period.

For the cross-market comparison including Ireland and Ontario, see how long CPD evidence must be kept. For the employer side in England, see why CQC Regulation 17 sets no retention period. And for the one UK regulator that accredits providers, see the GOC provider registration scheme.