Find your Registration Authority

Your Registration Authority can help with:

• lost or damaged smartcards or devices
• issuing and printing smartcards
• adding or removing roles and access to clinical systems
• unlocking smartcards and resetting passwords, if you're not able to use self-service unlock smartcard

You do not need to contact your Registration Authority to unlock your smartcard - you can use self-service unlock smartcard.

Ask a colleague or your line manager

The best person to ask is whoever gave you initial access to patient data, most likely by providing your first smartcard or other authenticator. If that's not possible, any other colleague with their own access may know who to contact.

You can also ask a colleague to search by organisation in Care Identity Management - you cannot do this yourself if your smartcard is locked.

Contact your IT helpdesk

If you cannot get help locally, you can contact your local IT helpdesk to find your Registration Authority.

If the Registration Authority function is provided by your IT team they should be able to help immediately. If not, when you contact them it can help to make it clear you're looking for Registration Authority or smartcard team contact details - if you only tell them you're trying to unlock your smartcard, they may tell you they're not able to unlock smartcards, or direct you to self-service unlock smartcard.

Contact your Commissioning Support Unit (primary care only)

If you work in primary care, such as in a pharmacy, GP surgery, dentist, optician or social care, your Registration Authority is often provided by a Commissioning Support Unit. These are listed by area on the primary care service provider contact details page.

To find your Registration Authority for another reason:

1. log in to Care Identity Management
2. choose 'Find organisation'
3. enter the organisation name or ODS code
4. select 'View organisation' on the right, and the next screen will show you details of Registration Authority users in that organisation

If you do not see the details, it's possible that your Registration Authority is in your parent organisation. On your organisation's details page, select the link next to 'Parent organisation' and you should find the details you need.

See step-by-step guidance of this process.

If your role means you may need access to clinical and personal data, a Care Identity profile will be created for you and you'll receive a smartcard or other authenticator. 

You should not have to do anything to prepare for this, but you will need to have your identity verified. You may need to attend a face-to-face identity check, or you could be invited to use the Apply for Care ID service.

A Registration Authority will not provide you with a smartcard or other authenticator if your organisation is not set up to use them.

Read our main smartcard and authenticator guidance.

You'll need to follow the guidance for when your smartcard has expired.