CPD requirements by profession

ICAEW CPD requirements for chartered accountants

Last reviewed 20 October 2026

ICAEW's CPD requirement is not one number — it is six, and which one applies to you depends on the work you do rather than the letters after your name. The regulations that introduced this took effect on 1 November 2023, so anyone working from pre-2023 habits is almost certainly planning against the wrong figure.

The six combinations

Category 3 is the default and carries the lowest requirement. Working for certain organisations, or delivering particular services, moves you up.

Read that table carefully, because the pattern is not symmetrical. The total hours are the same whether or not you are in practice — what changes is how much of it has to be verifiable. A Category 1 member in practice needs 30 verifiable hours; the same category outside practice needs 15. Practice work carries the heavier evidential burden.

Finding your category

Do not guess it. ICAEW publishes a tool for establishing your obligations, and category is driven by the nature of the work — the sector you operate in, the services you deliver, and in some cases the type of client. Two members with identical job titles at different firms can sit in different categories.

The practical risk of guessing is asymmetric: assume Category 3 when you are actually Category 1 and you are 20 hours short with half of them needing verification you never collected.

“Verifiable” is the operative word

The hour totals get the attention, but the verifiable subset is what determines how you should choose courses. Verifiable CPD needs evidence from outside your own record — documentation from the provider showing the activity took place and what it covered.

Reading a technical update, thinking carefully about a client problem, or discussing an issue with a colleague can all be legitimate CPD. None of it is verifiable. If your category requires 30 verifiable hours, the majority of your year has to be activity that produces third-party evidence, and that is a planning decision, not a recording one.

The ethics hour

Separate from the category requirement, every member must complete at least one hour of ethics-related training in each CPD year, and this activity must be independently verifiable. It is the single most specific obligation in the regulations.

ICAEW provides its own Ethics CPD Course, which offers up to 12 hours of verifiable CPD, but using it is not compulsory — equivalent training from elsewhere satisfies the requirement provided it meets the same learning outcomes. That is a genuine choice, and it is worth noting that the ICAEW course can also take a substantial bite out of your wider verifiable total if you complete more of it than the mandatory hour.

What it cannot be is informal. An hour of reading about ethics does not discharge an obligation that specifies independent verifiability.

Firms have obligations too

The regulations place responsibilities on firms, not only individuals — including supporting members in meeting their requirements and understanding which categories their people fall into. If you are responsible for a team, your exposure is not limited to your own record.

Where CPD accreditation fits — and where it doesn't

This is the part most training providers get wrong, so it is worth being blunt about it.

ICAEW does not approve, endorse or pre-authorise external CPD providers. Neither we nor any other CPD accreditation body can make a course “ICAEW-approved”. Any provider telling you otherwise is overstating what they hold, and members who repeat that claim in a record are the ones exposed if it is questioned.

What independent accreditation actually does is narrower and more useful: it gives members evidence that the learning was assessed against a published standard, with stated outcomes, a justified hour claim, and a certificate anyone can check. When your record is reviewed, that evidence is what turns “I did a course” into something defensible.

An AssuredCPD-accredited course carries stated learning outcomes, a CPD-hour figure assessed as proportionate rather than self-declared, and a unique verification code. We are explicit in our own rules about what providers may and may not claim — see what you can and can't claim once a course is CPD accredited.

What to look for in a course

Whatever body you report to, the same four questions separate learning that will stand up from learning that won't:

• Are the learning outcomes written down? You cannot reflect on what a course changed if it never said what it intended to teach.
• Is the hour claim justified, or just asserted? An inflated figure is the single most common reason a course fails our assessment, and it is the figure you will be putting your name to.
• Was anything actually assessed? A completion certificate for watching a video is not evidence of learning.
• Can the certificate be checked by someone else? A PDF proves nothing on its own. A reference a third party can verify does.

For ICAEW members the fourth question is not optional diligence — it is close to the definition of verifiable CPD, and it determines whether an activity counts toward the part of your requirement that actually binds.

How the UK bodies compare

CPD requirements are set independently by each body, and they differ far more than most people expect. Across the twelve below, three set no hours target at all; three count records or outcomes rather than time; two require a set share of the total to be verifiable; one fixes nearly half the requirement to named subject areas. Knowing which model you are under matters more than knowing any single number.

Three practical points fall out of that table. First, a figure from one body tells you nothing about another — 40 ACCA units, 35 NMC hours over three years and nine CILEX outcomes are not comparable quantities. Second, several bodies now specify not just how much CPD but what kind: verifiable units for ACCA and the GDC, named themes for CIOB, participatory hours for the NMC, planned outcomes for CILEX. Third, if you hold dual registration you are under both regimes at once, and the stricter one governs your planning.

Five mistakes that cost people their CPD year

These come up across every regime, and all five are avoidable at no cost.

1. Planning against the wrong year. Some bodies run January to December, some from your own renewal, registration or subscription date. Diarise your date, not a colleague's.
2. Leaving the interactive part until last. Participatory hours, peer discussions and facilitated sessions all need another person's time. They are the components most likely to slip, and the least possible to do in a hurry.
3. Collecting certificates that prove attendance but not learning. If the certificate does not state learning outcomes and hours, you are reconstructing the detail from memory months later — and under a verifiable-CPD regime you may not be able to count it at all.
4. Recording activity but not impact. Every records-based and standards-based regime asks what changed in your practice. A list of course titles answers a different question.
5. Believing a provider's claim of regulator approval. None of the bodies above approve or endorse external CPD providers. A course advertised as “approved” by your regulator is misdescribed, and repeating that claim in your own record is your exposure, not the provider's.

Common questions

How many CPD hours does ICAEW require?

It depends on your category: 20 hours for Category 3, 30 for Category 2, and 40 for Category 1. Category 3 is the default and carries the lowest requirement. A set portion of each total must be verifiable, and the verifiable share is higher for members working in practice.

What is the difference between practice and non-practice ICAEW categories?

The total hours are the same, but the verifiable requirement differs. In practice, Category 1 requires 30 verifiable hours of 40, Category 2 requires 20 of 30, and Category 3 requires 10 of 20. Outside practice the same categories require 15, 10 and 5 verifiable hours respectively.

What counts as verifiable CPD for ICAEW?

Activity for which you hold evidence from outside your own record, typically documentation from the provider showing the activity took place and what it covered. Reading, reflection and informal discussion can be legitimate CPD but are not verifiable.

Does ICAEW require ethics training?

Yes. Every member must complete at least one hour of ethics-related training in each CPD year, and that activity must be independently verifiable. ICAEW offers its own Ethics CPD Course but using it is not compulsory, provided equivalent training meets the same learning outcomes.

When did the current ICAEW CPD Regulations take effect?

1 November 2023. They replaced the previous approach with a category-based system in which the annual requirement is defined by the nature of the accountancy work undertaken.

How do I find out which ICAEW CPD category I am in?

ICAEW publishes a tool for establishing your obligations. Category is driven by the nature of your work rather than your job title, so two members with the same title at different firms can fall into different categories. It is worth checking rather than assuming the default.

Do CPD hours from one professional body count for another?

Usually yes, if the learning is relevant to your practice under both, but the arithmetic does not transfer. Each body sets its own requirement, period and recording rules, so the same activity may need to be logged twice in different formats. If you hold dual registration, plan against the stricter regime.

Can any training provider be approved by my regulator?

Generally no. The UK professional bodies covered here do not approve, endorse or pre-authorise external CPD providers or courses. A provider advertising itself as regulator-approved is misdescribing what it holds, and repeating that claim in your own CPD record is your exposure.

What should a good CPD certificate show?

The provider, the date, the hours claimed, the learning outcomes covered, and a reference someone else can check independently. A certificate stating only that you attended is the most common reason people struggle to evidence an activity later.

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AssuredCPD is an independent CPD accreditation body. We are not a government or regulatory body and do not award regulated qualifications. AssuredCPD accreditation is not endorsement, approval or recognition by any professional body named on this page, and we have no affiliation with them. Requirements are summarised from each body’s own published guidance and were checked on 20 October 2026; those bodies change their rules from time to time, so always confirm against the official source linked above before relying on it.