Expert advice

Legal advice: Do I have to report a parking fine to the Nursing and Midwifery Council?

The Nursing and Midwifery Council requires nurses and midwives to report any convictions or cautions they receive, but do parking fines and other fixed-penalty motoring offences fall within this category?

The Nursing and Midwifery Council requires nurses and midwives to report any convictions or cautions they receive, but do parking fines and other fixed-penalty motoring offences fall within this category?


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Given the numerous restrictions placed on parking in many towns, it is conceivable that nurses and midwives will receive parking fines, either in their personal life or while undertaking professional duties.

The fine for the parking offence itself can be upsetting enough. Add in the prospect of this affecting your career and it becomes even more distressing.

While most nurses and midwives are aware of their obligation to report any convictions to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), they are not always sure what they have to report and when.

Risk and reputation

The NMC requires nurses and midwives to self-report any convictions or cautions they have received, either at the point of registration or when revalidating. Failure to do so could be seen as a breach of the Code and could result in a fitness to practice hearing by the NMC.

To avoid any possible breach of the Code for non-disclosure, it would be good practice to report a conviction or caution at the time it occurs.

However, as the NMC is only concerned with cases that pose a risk to patients or the public, or could be seen as damaging the reputation of the nursing and midwifery professions, it does not require every offence or caution received by a nurse or midwife to be reported.

Category of offences

I’m sure most people would not see a parking fine as posing a risk to patients or the public, or damaging to the reputation of the professions, and the NMC appears to agree. Motoring offences which result in fixed penalty notices, or involve a parking infringement, fall within the category of offences which are not investigated by the NMC if referred to them.

So provided it is just a parking fine you have received and you have not committed any other form of motoring offence, other than those that result in a fixed penalty charge, there is no need to self-report a parking fine to the NMC.


Marc Cornock is a qualified nurse, academic lawyer and senior lecturer at the Open University

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