Annual Retention Fee for 2027
The General Dental Council (GDC) today announced that the Annual Retention Fee (ARF) for 2027 will be £720 for dentists and £111 for dental care professionals (DCPs).
The ARF will rise by 3.1%, in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) as at August 2026. The increase is driven by the year-on-year growth in the number of fitness to practise (FtP) concerns reported to the GDC. Council agreed the 2027 fee today when it approved the GDC’s business plan for 2027-2029.
The increase in the ARF in 2027 will be used to invest in the necessary additional resources to deal with the immediate demands on FtP and to start work on longer-term improvements.
Last year the GDC said that any increase to the ARF in 2027 and 2028 would not exceed the annual rate of CPI, other than in exceptional circumstances. The 2027 fee is in line with that commitment. The increase is £22 a year for dentists (£698 in 2026) and £3 a year for DCPs (£108 in 2026).
Tom Whiting, Chief Executive and Registrar of the GDC, said:
“We have not taken this decision lightly. We know that dental professionals want fitness to practise investigations to be quicker and less stressful, and so do we. We are receiving many more concerns than we did a few years ago and need the right resources in place to deal with them fairly and promptly. The sustained increase in the volume of concerns being received creates a challenging environment which we will need to take further steps to address in future years.
“We want this investment to make a real difference to people going through the process. We will engage with stakeholders and dental professionals in the months ahead to share more information about the challenges and seek feedback on our approach.”