Website legal requirements · for physiotherapists
What a physio website may call you.
The title is the rule: who may use “physiotherapist”.
“Physiotherapist” and “physical therapist” are protected titles: only someone on the HCPC register may use them. Using a protected title you aren’t entitled to, or claiming to be registered when you’re not, with intent to deceive, is an offence. On a clinic’s website, give the title only to the people who hold it.
Chris Painter, founder of ThemeSmith · checked 28 October 2026 · every rule links to its source
The rules for physiotherapists
What the rules ask of your website.
Two protected titles.
“Physiotherapist” and “Physical therapist” are on the HCPC’s list of protected titles. A sports massage therapist or rehabilitation coach who isn’t registered describes their work without them.
Regulator guidance · UK · HCPC, the professions we regulate
Misusing them is an offence.
With intent to deceive, falsely claiming to be registered, using a protected title you aren’t entitled to, or falsely claiming a qualification in the profession, is an offence with a fine up to level 5.
Law · UK · Health Professions Order 2001, article 39
No badge or membership you don’t hold.
Showing a trust mark, quality mark or equivalent without authorisation is always unfair, and so is claiming approval from a body when the claim is false or its terms aren’t being kept. Take a scheme’s logo off the site the day the membership ends.
Law · UK · Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20, paragraphs 3 and 4
Not on the list
What the rules don’t ask for.
An HCPC number or logo on the site.
The title rule doesn’t ask you to publish a registration number; what it forbids is using the title, or claiming registration, without it.
The three rules every business has still apply.
A price shown to the public includes VAT; a limited company shows its registered name, number and office; a site that takes enquiries says how it will use them. What every UK business website must show.
Questions
What physiotherapists ask.
Who can call themselves a physiotherapist in the UK?
Only someone registered with the HCPC. “Physiotherapist” and “physical therapist” are protected titles.
Does a physio website have to show an HCPC number?
The law doesn’t require it. What it forbids is using the title, or claiming registration, when you aren’t registered.
Building the site
A website for physiotherapists, with this built in.
Other trades with a rule of their own: dentists · architects · therapists and psychologists · estate agents · driving instructors · gas engineers · cafés, restaurants and caterers.