How to verify an English clinic’s CQC registration.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. Any clinic that performs “regulated activities” — broadly, surgical procedures, treatment of disease/injury, and diagnostic services — must be registered. The full list of regulated activities sits in Schedule 1 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

The catch most patients miss: purely cosmetic subcutaneous injections used only to alter appearance, such as cosmetic botulinum toxin or dermal filler, are generally not CQC-regulated activities. Scope can change with the purpose of the treatment, the professional carrying it out and any other activities at the provider. So “not on the CQC register” is not automatically a red flag for a purely cosmetic injectables premises. It matters when a provider says it carries on a regulated activity such as surgery, diagnosis or treatment of a disease, disorder or injury.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own regulators (Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority). The walkthrough below is for England specifically.

Step 1. Go to cqc.org.uk and use the search bar at the top.

Step 2. Type the clinic’s exact registered name (the one on Companies House, not necessarily the trading name on their website) plus the postcode. Trading names sometimes differ — “The Wellness Group” might be registered as “Wellness Group Limited”, or under a holding company.

Step 3. If the clinic appears, you will see provider and location information. Where available, the page may also show inspection information, a registered manager and the regulated activities covered. Confirm the location details match the premises you would be visiting; do not assume that a provider’s registration covers every address it uses.

If nothing appears, that doesn’t prove the clinic is unregistered — try variations on the name (drop “Ltd”, add “Clinic”, search by postcode alone). If you still get nothing and the clinic claims to do regulated activities, you have a real signal worth following up on.

1. The last inspection was years ago. CQC ratings degrade in usefulness with age. A “Good” from 2019 tells you the clinic was good in 2019 — staffing, ownership, premises and management may have all turned over since. If the page reads “last inspection 2018” for a clinic operating in 2026, that’s an information vacuum, not a reassurance.

2. The address on CQC doesn’t match the treatment address. Some larger groups register one address centrally (often the head office) but treat patients across multiple sites. Whether a particular site must appear as a registered location depends on the regulated activity and the provider’s registration. Check the specific premises and ask the provider or CQC if the position is unclear.

3. The registered activities don’t cover what the clinic advertises. A clinic registered only for “treatment of disease, disorder or injury” that advertises surgery deserves closer checking. The public page can show registered activities, but interpreting the legal scope of a particular service can be fact-specific. Compare the official entry with the clinic’s website and ask CQC where the position is unclear.

If you suspect a clinic is operating outside its CQC registration, or is doing regulated activities without registration at all, you can tell CQC directly: its complaints page links to “Give feedback on care” and “Report an unregistered provider” at cqc.org.uk. You can give feedback anonymously. CQC does not take forward individual complaints: for a complaint about your own treatment, start with the clinic itself; if the clinic subscribes to ISCAS (the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service), you can escalate there. For concerns about an individual practitioner, contact their professional regulator (GMC for doctors, GDC for dentists and dental nurses, NMC for nurses).

Where we have matched a clinic’s address to an official CQC location record, the factsheet links straight to that record; otherwise we make no positive or negative registration claim. The factsheet also lists the practitioners named on the clinic’s own website, each with a link to the GMC, GDC or NMC register. Type the clinic name into our search to see what we found, with the source links so you can check the original register yourself. We never grade or rank clinics; the public record speaks for itself.

More on the regulatory landscape, why it’s as fragmented as it is, and where the upcoming licensing scheme may close the gap: Why Unmist exists.