The NMC Health and Character Declaration

The health and character declaration is the shortest of the eight revalidation requirements in terms of paperwork (a one-page form, no evidence to gather), but the one nurses most often worry about. The worry is usually about whether something needs disclosing, and what happens if it does.

The principle is simple: declare anything that could affect your fitness to practise. The application is harder. This chapter covers what the declaration asks, the disclosure threshold, and what happens after disclosure.

What the declaration covers

The NMC’s declaration has three components:

Health. Anything about your physical or mental health that could affect your ability to practise safely.

Character. Convictions, cautions, fixed-penalty notices that bear on professional standing, regulatory actions by other healthcare regulators, dismissals from healthcare roles.

Conduct. Any matter under investigation by an employer, regulator, or court that could affect your fitness to practise.

The declaration covers the period since your last NMC submission. For revalidating registrants, that’s typically the three years of the current cycle. For first-time revalidators or those returning to the register, the period may be longer.

What “fit to practise” means

The NMC’s definition is functional: you can perform the duties of your registered scope without risk to patients due to health, character or conduct issues.

What this excludes:

• A history of any health condition, by itself.
• A criminal record, by itself.
• A previous fitness-to-practise concern that was resolved.

What this includes:

• A current condition that is affecting your practice, where it is not being managed.
• A current investigation by another body that could result in restriction.
• A pattern of conduct that suggests inability to meet the Code.

The test isn’t perfection. It’s whether you can do the job safely.

The disclosure threshold

The single principle that helps with the borderline cases: if in doubt, declare and provide context.

A disclosed matter that turns out not to affect fitness to practise is processed quickly and closed. An undisclosed matter that comes to light later is treated as a deliberate omission, which is itself a fitness-to-practise concern. The cost asymmetry is significant: declaring is low-risk; concealing is high-risk.

In practice this means:

• Disclose anything you’re unsure about. Better to have the NMC say “no further action needed” than to be asked later why you didn’t mention it.
• Provide context. A short factual description of the matter and how it’s been managed is much easier to assess than a bare disclosure.
• Don’t speculate about whether something “counts”. Disclose the facts and let the NMC decide.

What clearly needs disclosing

Five categories that always need disclosing:

1. Convictions or cautions for any offence other than minor motoring fixed-penalty notices.
2. Charges currently outstanding in a criminal court.
3. Regulatory action by another professional body (GMC, GPhC, HCPC, social work registers).
4. Investigation or dismissal by a healthcare employer for misconduct, performance or health issues affecting practice.
5. Health conditions that have caused extended absence, restriction on duties, or that you’re aware are affecting your practice.

What clearly doesn’t need disclosing

Five categories that don’t:

1. Minor health events that didn’t affect your work: a short course of antibiotics for a sinus infection, a sports injury that healed.
2. Managed long-term conditions that don’t affect practice (controlled asthma, stable diabetes, IBS, eczema).
3. Mental health support you’ve sought proactively, without impact on practice (counselling, therapy, GP-prescribed antidepressants where you’ve remained at work).
4. Civil disputes that don’t involve professional conduct.
5. Fixed-penalty motoring offences (speeding tickets, parking).

The grey area

Some matters sit between the two lists. Cases where reasonable nurses would make different judgements:

• A complaint to your employer that was resolved without formal action.
• Treatment for a mental health condition that you’ve been open about but that hasn’t affected practice.
• A medication near-miss that was reported and learned from but didn’t result in any formal process.
• A historical conviction that’s long resolved.

For these, the safer-disclose principle applies. A short factual disclosure with the resolution noted (“Complaint to employer in 2024 about handover technique: investigated, no formal action, I attended additional handover training”) is processed without difficulty. The next chapter walks through these grey areas in more detail.

What happens after disclosure

A disclosed matter goes to the NMC’s case management team. The team reviews the disclosure and decides one of three things:

1. No further action required. The matter doesn’t affect fitness to practise. This is the outcome for the majority of disclosures.
2. Further information requested. A short letter asking for additional context. You provide it; usually resolved without escalation.
3. Referral to the fitness-to-practise process. Rare. Reserved for matters where there’s a credible concern about ongoing safety.

Your registration stays active throughout this process unless an interim order is imposed (very rare, only for serious matters).

What happens if you don’t disclose

A material non-disclosure discovered later is itself a fitness-to-practise concern, often more serious than the original matter would have been. The NMC routinely cross-references DBS records, court records and registrar data with declarations. Concealment usually surfaces.

The cost of disclosure when not strictly required: minimal, possibly a follow-up question. The cost of non-disclosure when it should have been made: potentially a fitness-to-practise hearing.

The next chapter walks through the specifics of what to disclose on the health and character declaration, including the grey areas above in more detail.