PC renewal

Guidance

Practising certificate renewal or PC renewal is required on expiry of existing certificates on 31 October in each year. On this page are a variety of links dealing with PC renewal. In particular, please refer to the guidelines on practising certificate renewal.

Practising certificate renewal process

Paper Renewal

Application forms are distributed to the profession during the first week of October. If you have not received your application form by mid-October, you should contact the records section of the Registrar's Department on 0131 226 7411 or send an email.

For information on practising certificate renewals, you can download our guidance material to the right of this page and visit our FAQs page.

Online Renewal

Members can opt in to online Practising Certificate renewal.  Online renewal is only available to members renewing Practising Certificates expiring October 31.  For members whose employer pays their fees the employer requires to opt in to online renewal for all staff.  Other members who are not associated with any employer in our records can opt in to online renewal as individuals.  You must login on our website to opt in between 5 and 16 September. 

Online Renewal "How to" Guide

Online Renewal Troubleshooting Guide

Renewal Fees

The fees to be proposed at the 23 September 2011 SGM remain unchanged from last year.

Guarantee Fund contribution 2011/12

The Guarantee Fund contribution for 2011/12 will £50 lower than the 2010/11 contribution. However you will notice a difference in your invoice with the current charge being separated between a contribution to the Guarantee Fund and an Accounts Fee. The Accounts Fee reflects cost of the inspection regime - it is not an additional charge.

We are making this change because the Scottish Government expressed the view that only costs and income which can be directly attributed to the Guarantee Fund claims process should be allocated to the accounts of the Guarantee Fund.  This view was accepted by the Society for future years.

The details

• The costs of the inspection regime will no longer be charged to the Guarantee Fund.  They will instead be charged to the Society budget from 2011/12 and approved through the Society's budgeting process. The inspection regime costs include the costs of the financial compliance and interventions teams.
• The income to cover these costs will be covered by a new charge called the Accounts Fee (which is reflected in the Legal Services Act) which is charged to the same population as the Guarantee Fund contribution and represents income to the Society and not the Guarantee Fund.
• The Guarantee Fund contribution for 2011/12 will be lower than in the previous year as fewer costs are to be funded from this subscription
• The main cost now met by the Guarantee Fund is therefore grant expenditure.  The grants forecast for 2011/12 is shown on the attached schedule. Representatives of Chubb (the providers of the fund's Stop Loss insurance) have recently reviewed the approach to budgeting for grant expenditure and did not raise any suggested improvements to the process.
• The breakdown of the 2011/12 proposal

If you have any queries about the new arrangements, please email us at fincomp@lawscot.org.uk