The General Dental Council (GDC) has published its annual Registration and Fitness to Practise statistical reports for 2023.

Registration report

The ‘Registration Statistical Report 2023’ provides an overview of registration activity. It analyses the number of dental professionals on the register, registration trends, and demographic profiles, including gender, age and ethnicity.

The report found:

  • A 3.9 per cent increase in the total number of professionals on the register, growing from 115,541 at the end of 2022 to 120,030 at the end of 2023
  • The number of dentists on the register increased by 2.4 per cent
  • The register contained 45,204 dentists (38 per cent)
  • The total number of dental care professionals (DCPs) saw a 4.9 per cent rise
  • Among DCPs, dental nurses represent the largest group with 61,774 registrations
  • The GDC processed 11,476 registration applications from the UK and overseas in 2023. This marks a significant increase from the previous peak of 8,979 applications in 2015

Fitness to practice

The ‘Fitness to Practise Statistical Report 2023’ details the case activities, concerns raised, demographic profiles, and investigation outcomes of fitness to practice investigations.

The key statistics revealed:

  • The number of new concerns received increased slightly to 1,297 in 2023 from 1,264 in 2022
  • The proportion of cases closed without further action rose to 35 per cent in 2023. Up from 26 per cent in 2022
  • Cases closed with advice increased to 14 per cent (compared to 11 per cent in 2022)
  • Cases closed with a warning slightly decreased to 14 per cent, down from 15 per cent in the previous year.
  • Fifteen per cent drop in the number of cases referred to a Practice Committee for hearings (132 in 2023 compared to 156 in 2022)

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