The European Communities (Recognition of Professional Qualifications) Regulations 2007

Conditions for compensation measures

25.—(1) A competent authority may, before authorising the applicant to practise the regulated profession in the United Kingdom, require him in the circumstances specified in paragraph (3) either (but not both)—

(a) to complete an adaptation period of up to three years with a successful assessment, or

(b) to take and pass an aptitude test.

(2) If a competent authority intends to require the applicant to complete an adaptation period or take an aptitude test it must first examine whether the knowledge acquired by the applicant in the course of his professional experience in a relevant European State or in a third country is such that it fully or partly covers substantially different matters.

(3) A competent authority may require the applicant to complete successfully an adaptation period or pass an aptitude test if:

(a) the duration of education and training of which he provides evidence, under paragraphs (1), (2), (3) or (4) of regulation 22, is at least one year shorter than that required by the regulated profession in the United Kingdom;

(b) the education and training he has received covers substantially different matters than those covered by the evidence of formal qualifications required for the regulated profession in the United Kingdom; or

(c) the regulated profession in the United Kingdom:

(i) comprises one or more regulated professional activities which do not exist in the profession in the applicant’s home State, and

(ii) that difference consists in specific training which is required by the regulated profession and which covers substantially different matters from those covered by the applicant’s attestation of competence or evidence of formal qualifications.

(4) In this regulation, “substantially different matters” means matters of which knowledge is essential for pursuing the profession and with regard to which the training received by the applicant shows important differences in terms of duration or content from the training required in the United Kingdom.