What happens if you're audited for CPD?

Most professional bodies sample a percentage of members each year and ask them to submit their CPD record. Being selected is usually random. It is not an accusation.

What the process looks like

1. You get an email saying you have been selected, with a deadline - typically two to six weeks.
2. You submit your record for the period, usually through an online form or by uploading a document.
3. A reviewer checks it against the scheme requirements: total hours, the formal or verifiable minimum, relevance, and reflection.
4. You may be asked for evidence for specific entries - a certificate, confirmation, or your notes.
5. You get an outcome. Most people pass. Some get feedback and are asked to improve the record. A minority are asked to complete a shortfall within a set timeframe.

What reviewers are looking for

• Does the total meet the minimum, including any sub-minimum?
• Is the learning relevant to the member's role?
• Is there evidence for the activities that require it?
• Does the record show reflection and impact, or just attendance?
• Does it look contemporaneous, or reconstructed in one sitting?

That last one matters more than people expect. Twenty entries all logged on the same date, in identical wording, invites closer inspection of every one of them.

If you are short

Say so, and say what you are doing about it. Bodies deal with shortfalls all the time and the process is normally remedial: complete the missing hours within an agreed window and resubmit. What escalates a shortfall into something serious is misrepresentation - claiming activities you did not do, or evidence you do not have.

Genuine mitigating circumstances - illness, parental leave, a career break - are recognised by most schemes. Some allow a formal reduction if you apply for it. Raise it rather than hoping the numbers pass unnoticed.

What escalation looks like

Persistent non-compliance or dishonesty can lead to a referral into the body's regulatory or disciplinary process, and ultimately to conditions on membership or removal from the register. This is rare, and effectively never happens to someone who kept an honest, incomplete record and engaged with the process.

How to be permanently audit-ready

• Log activities as they happen, with the real date
• Attach or reference the evidence at the time
• Write one line of reflection per entry
• Keep records for at least five years unless your body specifies otherwise
• Check your subtotal against the minimum twice a year, not once

An audit request should be a fifteen-minute job: filter by period, export, send. That is entirely a function of what you did during the period, not what you do when the email arrives.

Keep your CPD in one place

A record only helps if it exists before you need it. Our free CPD tracker logs an activity in seconds, tallies your hours automatically, keeps your reflections with the entry, and exports a clean PDF whenever you need evidence. Free for life for individuals - and the record belongs to you, not your employer.