More than 500 NHS nurses from Nigeria could be struck off after warning that their exam results could be 'fraudulent or incorrect'

More than 500 midwives and nurses working in the UK could be struck off following a probe into a test centre in Nigeria, the regulator has warned.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council said the registrations of those who passed exams at the centre could be 'fraudulent or incorrect'.

To make sure internationally educated professionals have the right knowledge and skills to provide high-quality care in the UK, they must take a two-part test of competence before joining the NMC register - a computer-based test (CBT) usually sat in their home country, and a practical test (OSCE) in the UK.

The CBT covers numeracy, including questions on drug dosage, as well as clinical questions, such as what health problems patients with diabetes are vulnerable to suffering from. 

An organisation called Pearson VUE, which runs the CBT programme on the NMC's behalf, recently alerted the regulator to 'anomalous data' at one of its third-party CBT test centres in Ibadan, Nigeria.