Te Kaunihera Rata o Aotearoa | Medical Council of New Zealand (Fees) Notice 2024

Pursuant to sections 130 to 133 of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, the following notice is given.

Notice

1. Title and Commencement

This notice may be cited as Te Kaunihera Rata o Aotearoa | Medical Council of New Zealand (Fees) Notice 2024 and shall come into force on 1 July 2024.
This notice has the status of secondary legislation for the purposes of the Legislation Act 2019.
This notice revokes and replaces all previously gazetted Te Kaunihera Rata o Aotearoa | Medical Council of New Zealand (“Council”) Fee Notices¹.
This notice is published on the Council’s website www.mcnz.org.nz/about-us/publications/gazette-notices/

2. Fees and Levies

The Council sets its fees and levies as specified in the following Fee Schedule.

3. Tax

The fees are stated exclusive of goods and services tax (GST). All fees are subject to the addition of GST at the prevailing IRD rate. The Council sets its fees and levies as specified in the following Fee Schedule.

4. Fee Schedule²

A	Practising Certificate (PC) or Interim PC including Disciplinary Levy	$
	Annual PC fee	806.70	^3, 4
	Application to vary existing PC	319.47
	PC Quarterly Fee (used only when bringing a doctor into their registration cycle)	201.68
B	Disciplinary Levy – levy for 12 months	215.00
C	Registration Fees
	Application for registration in a provisional general/general scope of practice:
	Provisional general registration (New Zealand/Australian/Examinations)	319.47
	Provisional general registration (Australian General Registrants)	511.15
	Provisional general registration (United Kingdom General Registrants)	511.15
	Provisional general registration (competent authority)	511.15
	Provisional general registration (comparable health system)	1,597.34
	General registration (New Zealand/Australian graduate)	511.15
	For registration in a provisional vocational/vocational scope of practice:
	Application for vocational registration (for those registered in the General scope of practice, who have been awarded the prescribed qualification)	255.58
	Application for vocational registration (for those who are not registered in the General scope of practice, who have been awarded the prescribed qualification)	511.15
	Application for provisional vocational registration (for international medical graduates with overseas specialist qualifications)	3,833.62
	Vocational practice assessment	16,783.35	²
	College advice fees for registration in a provisional vocational scope of practice*:
	Assessment of documents (preliminary advice)	1,961.20	²
	Interview (final advice)	4,635.56	²
	Re-evaluation**	1,426.33	²
	Advice on supervisor/employment	237.72	²
	For registration in a special purpose scope of practice:
	Special purpose postgraduate training	1,022.30
	Special purpose locum tenens/teleradiology/research	638.94
	Other registration-related fees:
	Application to change existing scope or conditions	319.47
	Restoration of registration	319.47
	Annual retention fee (non-practising status)	138.13
D	Certificate Signed by the Registrar
	Certificate of professional status, registered information, and any other document confirming registration status/standing or internship details	75.00
E	New Zealand Registration Examination (NZREX Clinical)
	Application fee	710.49
	Examination fee	4,099.03	²
	Review of decisions (recount)	361.47
	Appeal of decisions (impairment or exam process)	542.20
	Withdrawal, or transfer, prior to, or on, the cut-off date for the specified exam (6 weeks prior to exam)	361.47
	Withdrawal after the cut-off date for the specified exam (20 working days or more prior to exam)	819.80
F	Screening Programmes
	Testing administrative charge (per test)	145.78
	Charge per test for urine/hair/blood (recharged at cost)	at cost	⁵
	Cost of breathalyser unit/re-calibration of breathalyser unit (recharged at cost)	at cost	⁵
G	Sexual Misconduct Assessment
	Administration charge only	1,904.11	^{2, 5}
H	Contribution to Educational Supervision Costs
	Administration charge only	2,542.50	^{2, 5}
I	Educational – Pre-Vocational
	Accreditation of training provider	31,725.35
J	Educational – Vocational
	Accreditation New Zealand-only training providers:
	Training provider with 300 or more paying members	22,154.00
	Training provider with fewer than 300 paying members	17,119.00
	Accreditation of training providers recertification programme only	10,070.00
K	Recognition of vocational scope of practice/Assessment of a recertification programme
	Vocational education and advisory body application for recognition of new vocational scope of practice	7,686.31
	Application for assessment of an individual recertification programme for a vocational scope of practice	3,202.42
L	Register
	Register for 12 months downloaded from the Council’s website	327.73
	Request for one copy of the Register	163.86
	Register data requests (Fee is per hour but may be adjusted depending on the nature of the query. Any disbursements will be recovered at cost)	163.86

Dated at Wellington this 29th day of April 2024.

DAVID DUNBAR, Registrar, Te Kaunihera Rata o Aotearoa | Medical Council of New Zealand.

Explanatory Note

Changes to Council fees and disciplinary levy

On 9 April 2024, Council resolved to approve the level of fees for the 2024/2025 financial year, commencing 1 July 2024. All of Council’s existing fees previously notified by Notice in the New Zealand Gazette were not changed; with the exception of:

An offsetting $20.00 increase to the practising certificate fee with an equivalent decrease to the disciplinary levy. No overall change to the combined fee.
College advice fees for registration in a provisional vocational scope of practice adjusted by inflation.
Certificate signed by the Registrar fee reduced from $191.68 to $75.00 to reflect the updated activity-based cost. This process has been improved by automation, resulting in a significant time and cost reduction.

Council’s existing practice is to contain fee increases to the annual rate of inflation. However, this year, having considered Council’s operational and strategic needs, and financial position, Council chose to inflation-adjust the college advice fees only. This is because college advice fees are passed through to the medical college in full on receipt of advice and an invoice.

Council sought feedback from the medical colleges to ensure that the fees fairly reflect the costs the colleges face in delivering timely advice to Council. Council having considered their feedback determined that an inflation adjustment is appropriate at this time.

Council continues to apply the activity-based costing methodology to ensure that there is transparency and equity across all fees charged by Council. The methodology was comprehensively reviewed this year (and normally reviewed every three years) and ensures that cross-subsidisation amongst fees is minimised. Council considers that existing fees remain appropriate, valid and relevant.

*College advice fees for registration in a provisional vocational scope of practice

College advice fees have been inflation-adjusted by 4.7%⁶. Medical college advice fees are set by Council, paid by the international medical graduate (IMG) applicant seeking registration in a provisional vocational scope of practice (or by their prospective employer, on their behalf) and passed through to the medical college in full on receipt of advice and an invoice.

Typically, only the preliminary advice and interview fees, are incurred in addition to two other Council fees related to this vocational registration pathway for IMGs, specifically the application for provisional vocational registration and the vocational practice assessment. However, we note that not every applicant will pay each fee. For example, only a small number of doctors will need to undergo a vocational practice assessment.

** Re-evaluation

If an applicant is not satisfied with the final decision of Council regarding their application for vocational registration, they may request a re-evaluation of their application. This thorough re-evaluation can be made available at a lower cost than the initial evaluation.

Key to annotations

1. Earlier fee notices replaced:

Fees Payable to Te Kaunihera Rata o Aotearoa | Medical Council of New Zealand from 1 July 2023 (New Zealand Gazette, 22 May 2023, Notice No. 2023-gs2086).

2. All fees are non-refundable unless denoted.

3. Reduced fee payable for first time applicants applying for registration within a provisional or special purpose scope of practice where the appointment is for six months or less. For appointments longer than six months, the PC fee will be charged to bring medical practitioners on to their PC cycles.

4. Fee includes a disciplinary levy of $215.00.

5. Services provided by external providers are on-charged in full by Council. A one-off administration fee is charged up front to cover the cost of Council staff time and overheads.

6. https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/consumers-price-index-december-2023-quarter/