Revalidation in Scotland

The GMC regulates licensed doctors and revalidation is an additional review that aims to give extra confidence to patients that their doctors are up to date and fit to practise.

Licensed doctors will have to revalidate, usually every five years, by having regular appraisals that are based on the core GMC guidance for doctors, Good Medical Practice 2024

These regular checks on doctors will help improve the quality of care received by patients.

The four domains in Good Medical Practice (2024) are appraised annually:

Domain 1: Knowledge,  skills and development

Domain 2: Patients, partnership and communication

Domain 3: Colleagues, culture and safety

Domain 4: Trust and professionalism 

Only doctors who have a licence to practise will need to revalidate. If you are a trainee, please visit Revalidation During Training.

Doctors in practice

Local Boards will have arrangements for revalidation and further information should be sought directly from them on how to use SOAR. Royal Colleges may be issuing information in relation to Form R but remember that in Scotland we have a separate system for revalidation (SOAR) and college guidance may refer to England only.

The GMC has issued guidance for further information.

Public, patients and other staff

The GMC have produced guidance for patients and the public on what validation means, and how to have input into the system.

If you have any other questions related to your revalidation, please send them to revalidation.enquiries@nes.scot.nhs.uk

This page was last updated on: 20.01.2026 at 15.07