CPCS Card Renewal 2026: Renewal CPD, Logbook and Form F1/3

What do you need for CPCS card renewal?

A blue card that ends within three months, or ended less than five years ago.
An HS&E test pass, NOCN or Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), from within two years of your application.
The Renewal CPD for your categories, completed within two years of your application.
Proof you still operate, by one of these: a logbook, an On-Site Assessment, a CPCS practical test, or the VQ (vocational qualification) achieved in the last two years.

If you added a category in the two years before your card ends, you don’t need the Renewal CPD for it. On form F1/3 your employer signs the independent declaration for the logbook or VQ route, and the CPCS tester signs it for a practical test or On-Site Assessment. If you’re self-employed, you can sign that section yourself.

NOCN: Form F1/3 (paper version) ↗

The Renewal CPD course

The online Renewal CPD replaced the CPCS Renewal Test from 22 August 2024. NOCN still accepts a Renewal Test taken within two years of your application. The course works like this:

You buy it on the NOCN Group Hub and do it anywhere, on a phone, tablet, laptop or desktop. Your employer can pay for it.
NOCN’s Renewal Test Tool shows which modules your categories need.
Modules are grouped into Earth Moving and Compaction; Lifting and Lifting Equipment; Piling and Pumping of Materials; Lifting Supervision and Management; and Demolition.
It isn’t a test. Questions check your understanding, and a wrong answer shows you the right one.
There’s no time limit; NOCN says it takes around 40 minutes on average.
It’s in English only, with a voiceover, and someone may help you as long as you answer the questions.
You need your own email address.
Completion shows on the Card Checker within 24 to 48 hours. You don’t get a card until you send form F1/3.

NOCN: Renewal Test Tool ↗What the Renewal CPD costs →

Logging your hours

A logbook used for renewal needs at least 300 hours for each category over the five years, which works out at five hours a month.
A category added partway through needs hours pro rata: 240 if it was added one year in.
With several endorsements on one category, log at least 30 hours on each.
A category held for under two years needs no hours.
Each entry must be endorsed by someone who can confirm your operating, and your employer checks the logbook before signing form F1/3.
NOCN audits logbooks at random, and an audit can hold up a renewal for up to 28 days.

The digital logbook on the NOCN Group Hub is free, and so is the paper one you can download. NOCN calls the logbook the cheapest way to renew.

If your blue card has expired

You can renew in the usual way up to five years after the expiry date. NOCN says that grace period is only for renewing: it doesn’t mean you can operate on site with an expired card. The new card runs from the old card’s expiry date, even if you apply late.

If you can’t meet the requirements for a category, you can bank it as long as you renew at least one, and claim it back within the new card’s five years. After five years you leave the scheme and have to pass the HS&E, theory and practical tests again, all within two years of applying. Without the VQ you’d then get a red card.

Cards gained through Grandfather Rights

Industry Accreditation, also called Grandfather Rights, gave blue cards without a VQ. The CLC (Construction Leadership Council) requires a Level 2 VQ for skilled operators, so those cards were phased out: they all expired on 31 December 2024, and NOCN stopped issuing them from 16 December 2024.

To keep your full card dates, either send NOCN evidence of a construction or plant VQ that includes the health and safety and productive working units, or pass a CPCS Competence Interview at any CPCS Accredited Centre. The interview doesn’t need an HS&E test. NOCN publishes its script and rules so you can prepare.

NOCN: CPCS Competence Interview ↗Competence Interview and top-up fees →

Sources: NOCN and 7 more. Checked October 2026.