For training providers
Does CPD accreditation expire?
Published 24 October 2026 · 7 min read
Short answer: yes. AssuredCPD accreditation runs for 12 months and has to be renewed each year to stay live and independently verifiable. Renewal is lighter and cheaper than the first assessment — a single course renews at £245 a year, and every package renews at 30% below its first-year price. If you let accreditation lapse, you must stop using the mark and the public Verify record will show the accreditation as no longer current.
“Does it expire?” is one of the first questions providers ask once the certificate arrives — and it matters, because an out-of-date claim is exactly the kind of thing a regulator or a sharp buyer will catch. This is a plain-English guide to how long CPD accreditation lasts, what renewal involves, what happens if you don’t renew, and the separate question of whether the certificates you’ve already handed to learners expire.
Why CPD accreditation is time-limited at all
Accreditation is a statement that a course meets a published standard now — not forever. Content ages. Legislation changes. A food-hygiene course written against last year’s guidance, or a first-aid course that predates the current resuscitation protocols, is no longer the course that was assessed. A quality mark that never expired would, within a year or two, be vouching for material nobody had looked at.
That is why currency is built into the standard itself. The AssuredCPD Standards Framework assesses six domains, and the last of them — D6, Currency and review — asks the provider to show the material is kept up to date and has a review cycle. An annual renewal is simply the point at which that promise is checked again. It is the mechanism that keeps the mark meaning something.
How long AssuredCPD accreditation lasts
An accreditation decision is valid for 12 months from the date it is issued. That applies whether you accredited a single course or hold an annual membership covering several courses — the whole accreditation runs in a 12-month cycle and renews on its anniversary. During that period the course carries the mark, appears in the public provider directory, and every certificate you issue is verifiable against a live record.
There is no hidden minimum term. You can accredit a single course for one year and stop; you are not locked into a multi-year contract. (If you want to see why that matters, our guide on choosing an accreditation body covers the commercial terms — minimum contract length, per-certificate fees — that cost providers the most.)
What renewal actually involves
Renewal is not a repeat of the full first-year assessment. The course has already been through all six domains; at renewal the question is narrower: has anything material changed, and is the content still current? You confirm the course is still running substantially as assessed, flag any changes, and provide updated evidence where the material has moved on. If the course has changed significantly — a new syllabus, a different delivery model — that part is re-assessed properly rather than waved through.
Because it is lighter, it costs less. The pricing is deliberately public:
| Package | First year (excl. VAT) | Annual renewal (excl. VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| Single course | £350 | £245 |
| Member-5 (up to 5 courses) | £975 | £685 |
| Member-10 (up to 10 courses) | £1,380 | £965 |
| Member-20 (up to 20 courses) | £1,930 | £1,350 |
| Member-50 (up to 50 courses) | £3,330 | £2,330 |
Every package renews at 30% below its first-year fee, and there are no per-certificate charges at any point. Full detail is on the pricing page.
What happens if you don’t renew
If a renewal isn’t completed, the accreditation lapses on its expiry date. Three things follow, and they matter:
- The mark has to come off. Once accreditation ends you no longer hold it, so continuing to display the AssuredCPD logo or describe the course as “CPD accredited” would be an inaccurate claim. Our guide on displaying the badge correctly covers removing it cleanly.
- The public record reflects it. The Verify page is the source of truth. A certificate code for a lapsed accreditation will show the accreditation as expired or no longer current — which is precisely what makes independent verification worth anything.
- The claim becomes a compliance risk. Advertising a course as accredited when it isn’t can fall foul of the CAP Code and the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. We go into what you may and may not say in what you can claim once your course is accredited.
None of this is punitive — it is just the flip side of a mark that is only worth something because it is current and checkable.
Do the certificates learners already hold expire?
This is a different question, and the distinction catches people out. A CPD certificate records a fact: that a named person completed a specific course on a specific date, while that course was accredited. That historical fact doesn’t un-happen. A certificate issued in good standing remains a genuine record of what the learner did, even if the provider later chooses not to renew.
What can expire is the currency of the training for compliance purposes — and that is set by the learner’s employer or regulator, not by the accreditation. Fire-safety awareness is commonly expected annually; first-aid certificates typically run three years; many clinical topics need periodic refreshers. That “valid until” expectation comes from the regulator or employer’s own policy, not from the CPD mark. So the honest framing for a learner is: your certificate is permanent as a record; whether the training still counts as current is a separate judgement your employer or regulator makes. We unpack what a certificate should actually show in this guide.
When letting it lapse is the right call
Renewal isn’t automatic and it shouldn’t be reflexive. If you’ve retired a course, folded it into another, or stopped running it, the right thing is to let that accreditation lapse rather than pay to keep a mark on something you no longer sell. Accreditation should map to the courses you actually deliver. If you’re on an annual membership, let us know when a course is retired so we can confirm how your membership places apply — the for-providers page explains what membership includes.
Expired, withdrawn or suspended: three different things
“No longer accredited” can mean three quite different things, and it’s worth knowing the difference because they say different things about a course.
- Expired is the ordinary case: the 12 months elapsed and the provider chose not to renew. It carries no judgement about quality — plenty of good courses lapse simply because they’ve been retired. The Verify record shows the accreditation as ended on its expiry date.
- Withdrawn is when a provider voluntarily gives up accreditation mid-term — again, usually because the course has stopped running.
- Suspended or revoked is the serious one: accreditation removed because a course no longer meets the standard, or because the mark was misused. This is rare, follows the process in the Standards Framework, and is the outcome the whole system exists to make possible — a mark that can never be taken away is a mark that means nothing.
For a buyer, the practical point is simple: an expired accreditation isn’t a red flag on its own, but a course still being advertised as accredited when Verify says otherwise is.
What the renewal timeline looks like
You won’t be caught out by a silent expiry. In the weeks before your anniversary we get in touch so there’s time to renew without a gap. A straightforward renewal is light: confirm the course is still running as assessed, flag any changes, send updated material where the content has moved on, and settle the renewal fee. For most providers whose course hasn’t changed, it’s a short confirmation rather than a project. The one thing worth doing in advance is keeping your course material current as you go — the provider who reviews content through the year has nothing to scramble for at renewal, which is the entire point of the D6 currency domain.
Common questions
How long does AssuredCPD accreditation last?
Twelve months from the date the decision is issued. It then renews annually on its anniversary. This applies to both single-course accreditation and annual membership.
How much does it cost to renew?
A single course renews at £245 a year (down from £350 in the first year). Every membership package also renews at 30% below its first-year fee. All prices exclude VAT and there are no per-certificate charges.
What happens if I don’t renew my CPD accreditation?
The accreditation lapses on its expiry date. You must stop displaying the mark and describing the course as CPD accredited, and the public Verify record will show the accreditation as no longer current.
Do certificates already issued to learners stop being valid?
No. A certificate is a permanent record that a named person completed the course on a given date while it was accredited. Whether the training still counts as current for compliance is a separate matter set by the learner’s employer or regulator, not by the accreditation.
Is renewal the same as a full re-assessment?
No. Renewal confirms the course is still running as assessed and that the content is current, with any significant changes re-assessed. It is lighter and cheaper than the first-year assessment.