ICAEW CPD Requirements: What You Need to Know
ICAEW members and other relevant persons must complete a minimum amount of continuing professional development each year. The number of hours depends on the type of work you do, whether you work in practice or outside practice, and the level of public interest or responsibility attached to your role.
Under the ICAEW CPD Regulations 2023, in-scope members must identify the correct CPD category, complete the required total and verifiable hours, undertake at least one hour of ethics training each year, reflect on their professional development needs, and keep evidence of relevant and verifiable CPD for at least three years.
This page provides general educational information to help ICAEW members understand how ICAEW CPD requirements work, including CPD categories, annual minimum hours, verifiable CPD, ethics training, recordkeeping, monitoring, and firm responsibilities.
Important: This content is for general educational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, regulatory, or individualised compliance advice and does not replace official guidance issued by ICAEW. Requirements may vary based on your role, professional activities, firm responsibilities, and whether an exemption or partial-year rule applies.
ICAEW CPD Requirements at a Glance
ICAEW has three CPD categories for practice members and three for members working outside practice. Category 3 is the default when a role does not fall within Category 1 or Category 2.
Regulatory basis: The key individual obligations appear in Regulations 8 and 9 of the ICAEW CPD Regulations 2023. Partial-year and role-change provisions appear in regulations 10 to 13, individual non-compliance is addressed in Regulations 14 to 17, and firm responsibilities are set out in Regulation 18.
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Who Must Follow the ICAEW CPD Regulations?
The ICAEW CPD Regulations apply to ICAEW members and relevant persons who are not exempt, as well as ICAEW member firms and certain other firms regulated by ICAEW.
Members remain personally responsible for meeting their CPD obligations. Annual membership renewal, or renewal or continuation of a relevant licence or registration, is treated as confirmation that the individual is compliant. A firm’s monitoring responsibilities do not replace the member’s individual responsibility.
A member may be fully exempt where, during the CPD year, they:
- Do not undertake accountancy, finance, or specified legal work, whether paid or unpaid
- Do not act as a trustee, company director, or in another role carrying an equivalent level of legal or financial responsibility
Some members performing only unpaid work may be subject to a reduced obligation to reflect on their development needs and complete any training necessary for that work, rather than meeting a prescribed minimum number of hours.
Retirement from full-time employment does not automatically grant an exemption, as members may still fall within scope due to director, trustee, voluntary, or non-executive roles..
ICAEW CPD Year and Annual Confirmation
The ICAEW CPD year runs from 1 November to 31 October. CPD requirements must be assessed and completed for each CPD year, not by calendar year.
At the start of each CPD year, members should:
- Identify the CPD category that best reflects their work
- Review their roles and responsibilities
- Consider changes that may affect their professional competence
- Determine professional, ethical, and technical development requirements
- Plan activities that will address those needs
Annual ICAEW membership renewal is treated as confirmation that the member has complied with the applicable CPD requirements.
ICAEW Continuing Professional Development Requirements
ICAEW’s framework combines minimum hours with a reflective approach. Completing the required number of hours is important, but members must also be able to explain why their learning was relevant to their role and how it addressed an identified development need.
Regulation 8 requires members to identify their CPD category, reflect on their professional development needs, complete the minimum total and verifiable hours for that category, undertake ethics training, and retain evidence.
Regulation 9 defines relevant and verifiable CPD as an activity that addresses an identified learning outcome needed to remain current and competent and that can be evidenced.
ICAEW CPD Categories and Minimum Hours
The category that applies to you determines both:
- Total number of CPD hours you must complete
- Minimum number of hours that must be verifiable
Members working in practice
For members working in practice, the CPD requirements vary by category: Category 1 requires 40 total hours with 30 verifiable, Category 2 requires 30 total hours with 20 verifiable, and Category 3 requires 20 total hours with 10 verifiable.
Members working outside practice
For members working outside practice, Category 1 requires 40 total hours with 15 verifiable, Category 2 requires 30 total hours with 10 verifiable, and Category 3 requires 20 total hours with 5 verifiable.
How to Work Out Your ICAEW CPD Category
The higher practice categories capture work involving greater public interest, regulatory exposure, or professional responsibility. Examples include certain responsible individuals, engagement quality reviewers, audit professionals working with public interest entities or large companies, and individuals delivering specified assurance, insolvency, tax, or other regulated services.
Outside practice, higher categories can include senior finance, governance, audit, and leadership roles at public interest entities, large companies, central government departments, public bodies, large charities, and other organisations with significant public interest.
Practice Category 1: applies to high-risk or specialized public roles, such as a key audit partner for Public Interest Entities (PIEs), major client seniors, or insolvency practitioners.
Practice Category 2: applies to members undertaking regulated or specialist work not meeting Category 1 thresholds, such as certain other statutory audits or specialized financial services.
Practice Category 3: acts as the default baseline category for general practice work that does not fall into the higher specialized brackets
Do not select a category based only on your job title. Consider:
- Services you provide
- Types of clients or organisations you work with
- Seniority and decision-making authority
- Amount of time you spend on specified activities
- Public interest attached to the work
- Regulated or licensed responsibilities you hold
If you have more than one role and the roles point to different categories, you should meet the higher requirement. ICAEW also provides an online identification tool to help members assess the category that best fits their circumstances.
Members working outside the UK must use professional judgement to identify the category that most closely reflects their role, taking relevant local laws and regulations into account.
Ethics Training Requirement
Every in-scope member and relevant person must complete at least one hour of ethics-focused professional development in each CPD year.
This can be completed by:
- Completing the ICAEW’s Ethics CPD Course
- Completing alternative ethics training that meets specified learning outcomes aligned with the ICAEW Code of Ethics
The ICAEW course is not mandatory. A firm or individual may use another provider, provided the training is equivalent to the relevant ICAEW learning outcomes.
The ethics activity can contribute to the member’s total and verifiable CPD hours when it is relevant and appropriately evidenced. Ethics should be treated as an annual professional development requirement, not as a one-time module completed at the start of a career.
For a deeper look at the ethics requirement, alternative courses, and how to build ethics into a broader learning plan, see our guide, Beyond the ICAEW Ethics Module: Building a Fuller CPD Picture.
What Counts as ICAEW CPD?
ICAEW takes a broad view of professional development. CPD is not limited to formal classroom courses or technical accounting updates.
Relevant activities may include workshops and:
- Online courses and webinars
- Conferences and seminars
- Audio Podcasts
- Coaching and mentoring
- Research and technical reading
- Problem solving
- Structured workplace learning
- Learning from colleagues
- Leadership and communication development
- Change management training
- Project work that creates identifiable new learning
The activity must be relevant to your role and connected to an identified learning need. Both technical and non-technical learning can count. Simply performing routine work is unlikely to count unless the activity produces identifiable learning or develops a new or existing professional competency.
What Counts as Verifiable CPD?
An activity is verifiable when there is evidence of completion that is:
- Objective, fact-based rather than based only on personal recollection
- Corroborated, it can be confirmed by an independent source
- Retained, it can be stored with the member’s CPD record
The member must also be able to explain why the activity was relevant and how it addressed a professional development need.
Evidence may include:
- Certificate of completion
- Course or event registration records
- Attendance confirmation
- Assessment result
- Email from a provider or employer
- Course agenda or programme
- Learning record from an employer platform
- Document or output demonstrating completed project-based learning
An activity that is relevant but cannot be evidenced may still count toward the overall CPD total, but it cannot be included within the required verifiable hours.
Online, Podcast, and On-Demand CPD
ICAEW does not restrict CPD to one delivery format, embracing various methods of e-learning. Podcasts, online courses, webinars, and other digital learning can count when they are relevant to the member’s role and address an identified learning need.
For digital learning to count as verifiable CPD, the member should retain suitable evidence showing:
- Who completed the activity
- What the activity covered
- When it was completed
- How much time was spent
- How completion or participation can be independently confirmed
The format itself is not the deciding factor. Relevance, learning outcome, and evidence are what matter.
Audio-Based Learning and LumiQ
LumiQ provides structured, expert-led audio learning designed for accounting and finance professionals. Episodes use conversations, case studies, and practical examples to explore technical topics like accounting standards, as well as strategic, ethical, and professional topics.
LumiQ can fit within ICAEW’s verifiable CPD framework where:
- The podcast episode is relevant to the member’s role and development needs
- The member completes episode
- Completion can be evidenced as in a Certificate of Completion
- The time claimed reflects the learning completed
LumiQ provides completion records and certificates that can support verifiability. Members remain responsible for determining whether a specific activity is relevant to their role, how it fits their CPD category, and whether it meets any specialist or ethics requirement. ICAEW remains the final authority on compliance.
How to Record and Evidence ICAEW CPD
ICAEW does not require members to use one specific recording system. Members may use:
- ICAEW’s digital CPD record
- Employer learning or CPD system
- Spreadsheets
- Other organised record that captures the required information
A complete CPD record should include:
- Description of all roles and responsibilities held during the CPD year
- CPD category that applied
- Identified development needs
- Technical development needs
- Ethics and professional scepticism needs
- Professional skills and development needs
- List of CPD activities and time spent
- Evidence for activities claimed as verifiable
- Impact of the learning
- Matters carried forward to the next year
- Reflections and priorities for the next CPD year
ICAEW’s digital CPD record prompts members to explain when an activity was completed, how long it took, why it was chosen, and what was learned.
How Long Must ICAEW CPD Records Be Kept?
Evidence supporting relevant and verifiable CPD must be retained for at least three years from the end of the applicable CPD year.
If requested by ICAEW’s Quality Assurance Department, the member must provide the evidence promptly together with a written summary of their reflection on professional development needs.
Keeping records as activities are completed is usually easier than reconstructing evidence later. ICAEW notes that long delays between an activity and subsequent verification or attestation may lead to additional questions during monitoring.
What Happens if ICAEW Reviews Your CPD Record?
ICAEW selects a random sample of members for CPD monitoring each year. Selected members are contacted by email and asked questions about their work, category, and CPD activity. Their records are then reviewed by ICAEW’s Quality Assurance Department (QAD).
A reviewer may consider whether the member:
- Identified the correct CPD category
- Met the required total hours
- Completed the required verifiable hours
- Completed annual ethics training
- Identified and reflected on development needs
- Retained suitable evidence
- Connected learning activities to their role
- Maintained an adequate CPD record
Members do not need to send their records unless ICAEW requests them.
What Happens if an ICAEW Member Is Not Compliant?
If QAD finds that a member selected the wrong category, completed too few hours, could not demonstrate the required verifiable hours, or otherwise failed to meet the regulations, the member may be required to give an undertaking to remedy the failure.
The remedial activity must be completed in addition to the member’s normal CPD requirement for the current year. The member must also inform their firm or employer of the breach.
Failure to provide a requested undertaking within 14 days, failure to complete agreed remediation, or repeated non-compliance can lead to referral to the Practice Assurance Committee or Conduct Department and possible disciplinary action.
Partial Years, Unexpected Absence, and Role Changes
If you first become subject to the regulations after the start of a CPD year, your requirements generally apply on a pro rata basis for the remainder of that year.
The same approach may apply where:
- You move from exempt to in-scope status during the year
- You expect to become exempt partway through the year
- You experience a significant and unexpected absence from work
If your role changes during the CPD year and the new role falls into another category, the minimum requirement generally remains based on the category that applied at the start of the year. However, you must reflect on whether the new role creates additional learning needs that require more CPD.
Part-time work does not automatically reduce the minimum requirement. ICAEW states that the category minimums generally apply regardless of whether a member works part time or full time.
ICAEW Firm Responsibilities for CPD
Members remain individually responsible for compliance, but ICAEW member firms and other firms covered by the regulations also have specific obligations.
Under Regulation 18, firms must:
- Ensure that members and relevant persons complete at least the minimum relevant and verifiable hours for their categories
- Maintain records of those relevant and verifiable hours
- Provide these records to the QAD upon request
Firms can choose how to maintain and monitor records. Detailed evidence does not necessarily need to be stored centrally, but firms must have processes that allow them to assess compliance and provide records when requested.
A practical firm process should check:
- Each employee has identified the correct category
- Total and verifiable hours are on track
- Annual ethics training has been completed
- Learning is relevant to the employee’s responsibilities
- Evidence has been retained
- Deficiencies are identified and addressed
ICAEW’s monitoring guidance identifies category selection, verifiable evidence, and effective firm oversight as important areas of focus.
ICAEW CPD Courses: What to Know
For most ICAEW members, the main planning points are:
- Determine your applicable CPD category at the beginning of the CPD year
- Fulfill the minimum total hours required for your specific category
- Meet the designated verifiable hour requirements
- Undertake a minimum of one hour of ethics training
- Select professional learning activities that directly align with your role
- Maintain a record explaining the selection rationale for each activity
- Keep supporting evidence on file for a minimum of three years
- Ensure your records are available for review if chosen for compliance monitoring
The framework is flexible about learning format, but it is specific about relevance, evidence, and accountability.
Frequently Asked Questions About ICAEW CPD
How many CPD hours do ICAEW members need?
The annual requirement ranges from 20 to 40 total hours. The exact total and verifiable minimum depend on whether you work in practice or outside practice and which CPD category applies.
What is the ICAEW CPD year?
The ICAEW CPD year runs from 1 November to 31 October.
What is the default ICAEW CPD category?
Category 3 is the default when a member’s role does not fall within Category 1 or Category 2.
Is ethics training mandatory?
Yes. In-scope members must complete at least one hour of ethics training in every CPD year.
Do I have to use the ICAEW Ethics CPD Course?
No. Alternative ethics training can count when it meets specified learning outcomes aligned with the ICAEW Code of Ethics.
What counts as verifiable CPD?
Verifiable CPD must be relevant to an identified learning need and supported by objective, independently corroborated, retained evidence.
Can podcasts count as ICAEW CPD?
Yes. Podcasts can count when they are relevant to the member’s role and address an identified learning need. To count as verifiable, completion must also be supported with suitable evidence.
Do I have to use ICAEW’s digital CPD record?
No. You may use ICAEW’s record, an employer system, a spreadsheet, or another suitable method.
How long must I keep CPD evidence?
Evidence of relevant and verifiable CPD must be retained for at least three years from the end of the applicable CPD year.
Can ICAEW review my CPD records?
Yes. ICAEW selects a random sample of members for monitoring each year. Records only need to be submitted if requested.
ICAEW CPD Compliance
ICAEW is the final authority on ICAEW CPD compliance. Members should rely on the ICAEW CPD Regulations 2023, category guidance, recording guidance, and current ICAEW resources when making decisions about their own obligations.
Sources
Primary sources used for this page include:
- ICAEW Continuing Professional Development Regulations 2023
- ICAEW CPD Categories
- ICAEW Your Guide to CPD
- ICAEW What Counts as CPD and What Is Verifiable?
- ICAEW Recording CPD
- ICAEW Answers to Frequently Asked Questions on CPD
- ICAEW Firms’ Guide to CPD
Reviewed by Danielle Marion, Regulatory Compliance Manager at LumiQ. Danielle has more than 20 years of experience in regulatory compliance and professional education governance, including leadership roles at Deloitte LLP.
