EU enforceable rights

Last updated: 2 December 2019

The Social Workers Regulations provide a route for registration for individuals known as "exempt persons".

An exempt person is defined in Regulation 2 as:

• a national of a European Economic Area (EEA) state (or Switzerland) other than the UK
• a national of the UK who is seeking access to, or is pursuing, the social work profession by virtue of an enforceable EU right
• a person who is not a national of an EEA state (or Switzerland) but is entitled to be treated no less favourably, for the purposes of access to and pursuit of the social work profession, than such a national by virtue of an enforceable EU right

An example of this could be the spouse of an EU citizen who is residing in the UK.

This can be a complex area of law and we recommend you seek separate legal advice on whether you have an enforceable EU right.

EEA member states

The EEA member states are:

Austria, Greece, Norway, Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Iceland, Portugal, Croatia, Ireland, Romania, Cyprus, Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovenia, Denmark, Lichtenstein, Spain, Estonia, Lithuania, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, France, Malta, Germany and the Netherlands.

Further information

If you have any questions, please call us on 0808 196 2274 or email [email protected].