Over 90 per cent of registrants (31,000) have paid their Annual Retention Fee (ARF) and around 30,000 annual practising certificates have been issued, according to the GDC.

About 1,000 registrants have written to ask the Council to remove their names from the register.

The Electoral Reform Services' help line has received over 3,500 telephone calls, with staff at the GDC responding to an additional 2,500 calls.

Several hundred letters have also been received about the ARF – all of which have been responded to.

The GDC adds that an analysis of the letters and calls will be made so that they can determine registrants' main areas of concern. This, along with a full debriefing of this year's ARF exercise, will be reported to the Registration Committee in February.

The Council adds that it is clear from the postbag that the decision to raise the fee for the over-65s has caused considerable controversy and that the unavoidable late issue of practising certificates has also caused concern.

To this end, the Chief Executive of the Registration Department, and Communications will be reviewing the lessons to be learned from this year's ARF exercise, and will be making proposals for the future.