Changes to Your Personal Details

Changes to your registered address and contact details
Please note it is your responsibility to inform us if you change any of your contact details. If you change your details on the IFA’s website, please note, this does not constitute a formal notification to the IFA that you wish to change the details we hold for you on our database where magazines and other important documentation is sent to. To update your personal details you must inform the registrar in writing without delay. Please note access to services and information may be incurred without your up-to-date details. 

Changes to your name
If you change your name whilst you are registered with us, you must inform us within one month of the change. To notify us of your new name you must submit a scan or photocopy of an official document which confirms the change. For example, this could be a copy of a marriage or civil partnership certificate, a copy of an enrolled deed poll, or a decree absolute or final order. If you haven’t legally changed your name, but you want it to appear on the register differently from how it is currently displayed (to add your middle name, for example). In this event you will be required to provide copy of a valid passport, EEA identity card, or driving licence, for example. Do not send original documents as we may not be able to return these to you. There is no charge for changing your name on our register and records. However, if you wish to receive a replacement certificate or membership card with your new name printed you will need to complete the Replacement Order Form, for a new copy to be issued. Costs will apply.

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Something to Declare

In our regulatory capacity our aim is always to protect the public before they are put at unwarranted risk of harm, rather than just reacting when something goes wrong. Therefore we require applicants and registrants to declare to us anything that may affect their fitness to practise. This is to assure ourselves and the public that, anyone on the IFA register practices in accordance with the standards expected of its registrants. This applies if you are:

• already a registrant
• applying to be included on our register
• applying to be restored to the register
• returning to the register
• voluntarily removing yourself from the register

You must notify us if there is any change in the circumstances relating to your fitness to practise declaration that you made as part of your application or renewal submission. You must notify us of any such change within five working days from the day the change occurred by completing the:

• Fitness to Practice Declaration Form (e.g. criminal conviction or fitness to practise proceedings with other regulatory bodies issued against you etc. which you have not previously advised us of) and;
• Health Declaration Form, if you are declaring a health related matter (including information provided by your Doctor).

Fitness to practise and health

Please note we do not require you to tell us that you are in good health when registering or when you renew. What we do require is that you tell us about any physical or mental health condition that could affect your ability to practise in a safe and effective way. Being unwell, even with a serious illness, doesn't necessarily mean that your fitness to practise is impaired. So if you declare a health condition this doesn't necessarily mean you wont meet the standards for registration. Declaring a health condition that could affect your ability to practise safely is an opportunity for you to tell us about how you manage your condition. It also allows you to show that you have insight into any limits you may need to put on yourself, and adjustments you may need to make, for you to practise your safely and effectively. Your registration will only be at risk if, on the evidence we have, it is not clear to us that can practice in accordance with the Codes of Conduct, Ethics and Practice. 

Fitness to practice and cautions and convictions

Declaring a past caution or conviction doesn't necessarily mean that your fitness to practise has been impaired and that we will refuse your application or renewal. However we do need to be assured that you can practise safely and effectively, and that you have insight into your past actions. Your registration will only be at risk if, on the evidence we have, it is not clear to us that can practice in accordance with the Codes of Conduct, Ethics and Practice. You are not entitled to withhold information about convictions which for other purposes are ‘spent’ under the provisions of the Act, and failure to disclose such convictions could result in disciplinary action.

By virtue of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 and Schedule 4 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exclusions and Exceptions) (Scotland) Order 2003, you are exempt from the provisions of Section 4(2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. However, recent changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974) mean that you do not have to declare certain cautions and convictions for offences old enough and minor enough to have no bearing on your current character and good standing. These cautions and convictions are considered 'protected' and you do not need to declare them to us.

Cautions and convictions you must declare, and which ones you no longer need to declare to us:

Disclosures in England and Wales

What cautions and convictions should I declare?
You must declare cautions as published by the Disclosure and Barring Service:​​​​​​www.gov.uk/government/publications/dbs-list-of-offences-that-will-never-be-filtered-from-a-criminal-record-check

When is a caution or conviction 'protected'?
A caution is 'protected' - and you do not have to declare it if it was not for a 'listed offence', and:

• you received it more than six years ago, or
• you received more than two years ago and you were under 18 at the time of the offence.

A conviction is 'protected' - and you do not have to declare it - if it was not for a 'listed offence', and:

• you did not receive a custodial (prison) sentence, and
• you have no other convictions (whether as an adult or under 18), and
• you received the conviction more than eleven years ago (or more than five-and-a-half years ago if you were under 18 at the time of the offence).

You also don't need to declare:
Driving offences in which the person committing the offence has been offered the option of paying a fixed penalty (e.g certain speeding offences, etc.) which will not be treated as a conviction for the purposes of renewal, registration, restoration or return to the register, and need not be declared. If you have already declared a matter as part of your application to the register or your annual renewal, you do not need to declare it again unless something has changed.

Disclosures in Scotland

For those who have a registered address in Scotland, the following disclosure rules apply to spent and unspent convictions:

• Those that must always be disclosed: https://www.mygov.scot/offences-always-disclosed/
• Offences that must be disclosed according to rules: https://www.mygov.scot/offences-disclosed-rules/

It is not necessary to disclose a spent conviction for an offence which is not on either list. If a conviction is spent and the offence is included on the 'Offences which must always be disclosed' list, it will be necessary to always disclose this, no matter how old the conviction is. If a conviction is spent and the offence is included on the ‘Offences which are to be disclosed subject to rules' list, consideration will be given to the age of the conviction and the age of the person at the time of conviction.

A protected conviction is a spent conviction for an offence as follows:

• which you received more than 15 years ago (if you were over 18 on the date of conviction) or
• which you received more than 7 years and 6 months ago (if you were under 18 on the date of the conviction) or
• for which you received the disposal of an admonition, absolute discharge or a discharge following a referral to a children’s hearing.

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