Registration Authority
Help for Registration Authority managers, agents, ID checkers, sponsors, local smartcard administrators and unlockers, and anyone with an interest in how access to patient data is managed.
If you are trying to find your Registration Authority, go here.
Performing the Registration Authority role
How to manage smartcards, roles, profiles and workgroups, and other guidance Registration Authorities need to do their day-to-day jobs.
What a Registration Authority does, the different RA roles and what they can do, and the RBAC codes related to each role.
Care Identity Service forms (including RA08), Registration Authority policy, Operation and Process guidance and the National RBAC Database.
Read the latest news, including changes to smartcard passcode requirements and the end of emergency registration.
Smartcards and other authenticators
Brief guidance for Registration Authorities on the most common activities relating to managing users' smartcards, including unlocking smartcards.
How to order blank smartcards, smartcard readers and printers.
How to manage non-smartcard authenticators, including iPads, security keys, Windows Hello and Microsoft Authenticator.
A virtual smartcard enables users to authenticate with an app on their mobile device.
How temporary staff and visitors, including bank, agency and locum staff, students and inspectors, can get smartcard access.
Support
How to set up workstations so that Registration Authority managers, agents, sponsors and unlockers can manage smartcards.
The list of email domains that can be used to verify identities, and how to request an addition to the list.
Registration Authority and smartcard policy training, role-specific presentations and quick guides.
Links to Registration Authority-specific pages on other Spine services, and third-party service links such as Electronic Staff Record (ESR).
Contacts
Contact details for local commissioning support units (CSUs), non-NHS Registration Authority service providers and other organisations.
Where to go to get help, ask questions and get involved in discussions about the Registration Authority role.
Care Identity Service applications
For information on the Care Identity Service (CIS1) application, Care Identity Management, Apply for Care ID and other services, go to our
Last edited: 2 April 2025 2:18 pm