CPD Credit Requirement

Annual minimum requirement is 50 CPD credits, of which 25 credits must be External.

• Although all Personal credits will be acknowledged and reflected in the CPD Certificate, no more than 10 Personal credits will count towards the annual minimum requirement.
• MRCP examiners can claim up to 12 External credits, and the remainder of the time spent examining will be claimed as Personal credits
• General Distance Learning can account for a maximum of 5 External CPD credits provided that the material includes either an assessment of learning or record of time spent completing the activity. Any additional distance learning will count towards Personal CPD
• There is a minimum requirement of 25 External non-clinical credits over the 5-year CPD cycle
• There is no minimum or maximum requirement for Internal credits

The minimum requirement for physicians who are retired or part-time and still practicing medicine remains the same.

CPD credits can be either Clinical or Non-clinical and can be derived from Personal, Internal or External activities.

• Clinical credits concern any event in which the educational content directly relates to clinical topics.
• Non-clinical credits concern an educational event that is not directly related to clinical issues, e.g. management courses, ethical and legal issues, appraisal training.
• External credits are given for events outside the hospital or trust such as attending conferences and study days. These may be regional, national or international meetings.
• Internal credits are events within the hospital/trust, or provided solely for local clinicians. E.g. hospital Grand Rounds, journal clubs clinico-pathological conferences, local evening medical meetings, etc.
• Personal credits relate to study such as private reading, lecturing, researching etc.

For more detailed breakdown about Credit Categories please refer to this booklet:

• CPD for UK Physicians (51k, PDF)