Displaying your CQC rating on your website: what Regulation 20A requires
If the CQC has rated your service, your website must show the rating, its date and where to read the report within 21 calendar days. What counts, who is exempt, and how to get it right.
By Daniel Stoychev, Webso Digital · 2 October 2026 · 6 min read
Sources checked against the regulator's own pages on 2 October 2026.
If the Care Quality Commission has given your service a rating, your website must show it. Regulation 20A of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 requires every website maintained by or for the provider to show the most recent rating, the date it was given, and where on the CQC's website the latest report can be read, legibly and conspicuously. The CQC says this must be done no later than 21 calendar days after it publishes the rating, and it can prosecute without first serving a warning notice.
Who it applies to
Any provider whose CQC page shows a rating of outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate. For a private clinic or an independent doctor's practice that usually means the clinic's own site. If your service has not yet been inspected, there is no rating to display.
Some services are exempt from the CQC's duty to rate, and so from the display rule. The CQC lists primary dental services, children's homes, sexual assault referral centres, blood and transplant services, hyperbaric oxygen therapy services and medical laboratories. A dental practice in England is registered and inspected but not rated, so it has nothing to display under Regulation 20A. Any registered provider may use the CQC's 'Regulated by' graphics instead.
What the website must show
The regulation sets out three things for every website maintained by or on behalf of the provider:
- the CQC's website address;
- the place on the CQC's website where the most recent assessment of the provider's overall performance, and of its performance at particular premises or for particular activities, can be read;
- the most recent rating, overall and for particular premises or activities, shown so that it is clear which rating relates to which.
Whatever is shown must be legible, displayed conspicuously in a place service users can reach, and show the date each rating was given. The CQC's guidance puts the website requirement as displaying ratings "on websites where you describe your service", which for most clinics means the home page and the pages describing the regulated services, not a single compliance page buried in the footer.
The widget, or your own design
The CQC provides an online widget for websites and posters for premises, and says you can use your own materials if you wish. The widget has one practical advantage: it pulls the current rating from the CQC, so it updates when a new rating is published and cannot go stale. If you design your own, you take on the job of changing it within 21 days of every new report.
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| New rating published | Update the website, and the posters at each location, within 21 calendar days. |
| You have asked for a review of the rating | Display it anyway. You may add a note saying a review has been requested, but the rating must still be clear and conspicuous. |
| Rated requires improvement or inadequate | Display it. The CQC encourages you to say alongside it what you are doing to improve. |
| You took over a location from another provider | You do not have to display the previous provider's rating. If you choose to, you must make clear it was awarded to the previous provider. |
| Dental practice, or another unrated service | Nothing to display under Regulation 20A. The 'Regulated by' graphic is optional. |
Why it matters beyond compliance
Patients who search for a private clinic check the rating, and a site that shows it plainly, with the date and a link to the report, answers the question before they leave to look it up. For search engines, a current rating linked to the regulator is part of what makes a health page verifiably trustworthy. The two goals point the same way: show it where people decide.
A quick check of your own site
- Find your CQC location page and note the current rating and its date.
- Open your home page. Is the rating visible without hunting for it?
- Open each page that describes a regulated service. Is the rating shown there too, or clearly reachable?
- Does what your site shows match the CQC page exactly, with the date?
- Is there a link to the report on the CQC's website?
- If you run more than one location, is it clear which rating belongs to which?
This guide summarises Regulation 20A and the CQC's published guidance. It is not legal advice; the CQC's own pages, linked below, are the authority, and they are worth reading for your service type.
Sources
- Care Quality Commission: Regulation 20A, display of performance assessments
- Care Quality Commission: How providers must display ratings
- General Dental Council: Guidance on advertising (effective 30 September 2013)
Written by
Web developer and SEO specialist at Webso Digital, working remotely from Wrexham for marine businesses, clinics and Southampton firms. Builds the sites by hand and writes the guides from the work. Not a lawyer: where a guide covers a rule, it quotes the regulator and links to it, and the regulator's page is the one to rely on.
Questions on this topic
Do dental practices have to display a CQC rating?
No. Primary dental services are among the services the CQC does not rate, so there is no rating to display. Dental practice websites have their own requirements, set by the General Dental Council.
How long do we have after a new report?
The CQC says no later than 21 calendar days after it publishes the rating on its website, on posters at the premises and on websites.
Is the CQC widget compulsory?
No. The CQC provides it and says you can use your own materials, but your own version must still show everything the regulation requires and be updated within 21 days of each new rating.