Eight UK Regulators, Eight Different English Rules

Eight bodies. One country. The same two exams doing most of the work.

No two of them set the same rule, and the differences are not small.

SpeakShark is free for the component every one of them cares about, three AI conversation sessions a day with no card.

In this guide: the scores · accepted tests · online · retakes · exemptions · what varies most · what to do · limits · method · FAQ

Key takeaways

• Eight regulators, and no two rules match.
• IELTS floors range from 6.0 to 7.5, and one body wants 8.0 for one profession.
• Online delivery is accepted by three, refused by three.
• Single skill retakes are allowed by four and refused by three.
• One regulator accepts any test that demonstrates C1.

The score table

Three shapes are visible. A flat floor at the GMC, GPhC, GOsC, GDC and HCPC. A candidate's choice of where one component drops, at the RCVS. And a named domain at the NMC, which sets writing lower, and the GOC, which sets speaking higher.

Only two of the eight say anything about a specific skill, and they point in opposite directions. Details in the regulator that wants 7.0 in speaking and the NMC's human marking rule.

What each one accepts

The range in that column is the whole story of this series. One regulator will consider any instrument that demonstrates a level, covered in the regulator that accepts any test proving C1. Another names a single company.

Two details inside the rows matter more than they look. The OET version is profession-specific, so a veterinary OET does not satisfy a pharmacy register and vice versa. And IELTS General is accepted at exactly one of the eight, which the NMC explains with a published criterion that a test must assess English in a healthcare or academic context and must not be a general test.

Online and at-home delivery

Three accept, four refuse, one is silent.

The sharpest pair is the GMC and the GPhC. One accepts OET@Home for doctors; the other refuses the identical product for pharmacy professionals. Same country, same exam, opposite answers, covered in pharmacists and straight sevens.

Retakes and sittings

The NMC is the outlier in both columns at once. It refuses the One Skill Retake because it requires all four domains in every sitting, and that same requirement is what lets it inspect both sittings and combine them. The two rules are one rule, covered in the NMC lets you combine two sittings.

The GMC is the harshest for anybody planning a resit, because a new sitting replaces the old one. We work through the comparison in which regulators let you retake one component.

Four ways to avoid the test

Every one of these bodies has an exemption route, and they test completely different things.

One asks where you qualified. One asks who supervised you. One asks about your clinical placements. One asks your university to write directly. One asks for twelve months of UK work.

We counted the country lists in three regulators, three lists, the shared 75 per cent threshold in the number UK regulators quietly share, and the five versions of a degree taught in English in five ways a degree taught in English is not enough.

What varies most

Ranking the axes by how much damage a wrong assumption does:

1. Delivery. Booking an online test for a regulator that refuses it wastes the whole fee and the whole wait. Three refuse.

2. Retakes. Planning a single skill retake where none is accepted turns a half-band shortfall into a full resit. Three refuse.

3. Test version. IELTS General, UKVI Life Skills and the profession-specific OET versions are all accepted somewhere and refused elsewhere.

4. The score itself. This is the one everybody checks, and it is the least likely to be got wrong.

That ordering is the practical point of the whole comparison. The number is the thing people research and the delivery method is the thing that quietly ends applications.

What to do with this

• Read your own regulator's current page. Nothing here substitutes for it.
• Check delivery before booking. It is the most expensive mistake available.
• Check the retake position before you need it.
• Check the test version, not just the test name.
• Check the exemption route. They are all different, and one may fit you.
• Do not take advice from another profession. That is what this table is for.

Across all eight, the component with the least room is usually speaking. It is set at 7.0 or higher in six of the nine rows above, it is the one the GOC protects specifically, it is the one the NMC insists a person must mark, and it is the skill that does not improve by reading quietly. Role play scenarios and a daily speaking partner are the practical routes, speaking practice for nurses covers the clinical register, and testing your speaking level free shows where you stand. CEFR levels for speaking explains the scale, IELTS for UKVI by CEFR level maps bands to levels, and English certificates that expire covers how long any of it lasts. For how examiners mark spoken English, Cambridge speaking criteria by level works from real scored candidates.

What we could not verify

This is eight bodies, not all of them. Social Work England, the General Chiropractic Council and the architecture and legal regulators are not in the table. Two of those showed no separate English requirement on the pages we read and one was not reachable.

Blank cells mean silent, not permitted. Where a page did not address a question we left the cell empty rather than inferring an answer.

We did not read every underlying document. Several of these requirements sit in guidance PDFs behind the web pages, and we read those where they existed.

Some pages are under review. The GDC states its English guidance is under review and the GPhC has consulted on changes to its international route.

Rules change. Every row is as published on the day we read it.

This is not registration or immigration advice. It is a comparison of published requirements, all linked below and in the individual guides.

How we researched this guide

We read the eight bodies one at a time over several days, each for its own guide, and this comparison is what fell out at the end rather than what we set out to build.

That order matters. Setting out to compare regulators produces a table with the same columns for everybody, which quietly hides the fact that they are not answering the same questions. Reading each one on its own terms first is what surfaced the odd ones: a reference form that replaces a test, a rule about needing an interpreter, a requirement that a person mark the speaking, a threshold expressed as a percentage of your conversations.

The comparison is also the only way some findings exist at all. No regulator writes about another, so a page saying OET@Home is not accepted looks like housekeeping until you have read the page saying it is.

We ranked the axes by damage rather than by interest, because that is the useful output. Candidates research the score, which is rarely where the mistake happens. The mistakes happen on delivery method, on test version and on retake assumptions carried over from a colleague in another profession.

Blank cells stayed blank. A page not addressing online delivery is not a page permitting it, and filling that in by inference is how a comparison becomes worse than no comparison.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, and eight regulators disagreeing about almost everything still agree about one thing.

Speaking sits at 7.0 or above in most of the rows above. One regulator singles it out and holds it higher than everything else. Another insists a human being must be the one listening. Nobody anywhere sets it as the concession.

You talk, the AI answers what you actually said, and you get speaking feedback while the conversation is still running. The free tier gives basic feedback; the detailed pronunciation and grammar breakdown is on Premium.

Being straight about the limits: a free session runs five minutes with four turns, we issue no certificates, and nothing here is accepted by any of the eight bodies in this guide.

Start free with three sessions a day and no card. Paid sessions run ten minutes with unlimited turns. Limits are on the pricing page, and how it works walks through a session. Sign up here if speaking is the row you need to move.

We are a speaking improvement tool. We are not an exam preparation provider, and we are not affiliated with Cambridge English, the IELTS partners, Pearson or any exam board. For test format, booking and official practice material, go to the exam body directly. Use SpeakShark to make your spoken English stronger, and use official material to learn the test.

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• Free tier: 3 AI conversation sessions per day, no card

Sources

• General Medical Council, using your IELTS certificate: the doctors' scores, the most recent sitting rule and the accepted delivery versions
• HCPC, certificate of English language proficiency: the scores for fourteen professions and for speech and language therapists, the OET availability, the test centre requirement, the one skill retake conditions and the 43 qualifying countries
• GDC, guidance on English language controls: the table of required IELTS scores for all seven dental registrant groups and the evidence routes
• GPhC, guidance on evidence of English language skills, June 2025: the one sitting requirement, the refusal of OET@Home and of UKVI Life Skills, and the qualification and practice routes
• RCVS, English language requirements: the three-and-one design, the component retake provision, the paper or online acceptance and the university confirmation exemption
• General Osteopathic Council, English language requirements: the C1 standard, the open acceptance of any test demonstrating it and the IELTS and TOEFL figures
• General Optical Council, international optometrists: the IELTS-only list, the 7.0 speaking requirement against 6.0 elsewhere, and the refusal of online IELTS and the One Skill Retake
• NMC, accepted English language tests: the six acceptance criteria, the scores, the combining provision and the refusal of IELTS Online and the One Skill Retake

FAQ