REPs governors past and present, joined chairman John Greenway MP and Registrar Cliff Collins at a celebratory dinner at the House of Commons to mark the fifth anniversary of the Register last week.

Since its inception in 2002, the Register has not only amassed a membership of nearly 24,000, making it the largest qualification based organisation of its kind, it has also become the model for most other registers around the world.

It has also completed more than 45,000 first-time registrations.

True to its original promise to raise standards in the industry it has lead the way in bringing synergy to a previously fragmented system of assessing courses and qualifications bringing credibility to both the industry and those who work within it.

Registrar Cliff Collins said: “The idea of a register of exercise professionals wasn’t new when we started REPs and certainly I think a lot of people expected us to fall by the wayside as others before had done, but fortunately for us, and I believe for the industry as a whole, we haven’t and thanks to the fantastic support we have received from both operators and training providers we have gone from strength to strength.”

Present at the dinner were Brigid Simmons, Margaret Peggie, Nigel Wallace, Innes Kerr, Dave Courteen, Stephen Studd, Sheridan Easton, John Greenway and Cliff Collins.