diff --git a/app/controllers/users_controller.rb b/app/controllers/users_controller.rb
index 2f6c452d4..9987b816a 100644
--- a/app/controllers/users_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/users_controller.rb
@@ -63,7 +63,6 @@ class UsersController < ApplicationController
   end
 
   def new
-    debugger
     @organisation_id = params["organisation_id"]
     @user = User.new
   end
diff --git a/app/models/user.rb b/app/models/user.rb
index ef371461c..d56c6751d 100644
--- a/app/models/user.rb
+++ b/app/models/user.rb
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ private
   def validate_email
     unless email_valid?(email)
       if User.exists?(["email LIKE ?", "%#{email}%"])
-        errors.add :email, I18n.t("validations.email.taken")
+        errors.add :email
       else
         errors.add :email, I18n.t("validations.email.invalid")
       end
diff --git a/config/locales/en.yml b/config/locales/en.yml
index d5368d07f..59010b6b3 100644
--- a/config/locales/en.yml
+++ b/config/locales/en.yml
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ en:
             email:
               invalid: "Enter an email address in the correct format, like name@example.com"
               blank: "Enter an email address"
+              taken: "Enter an email address that hasn’t already been used to sign up"
             role:
               invalid: "Role must be data accessor, data provider or data coordinator"
               blank: "Select role"
diff --git a/spec/requests/users_controller_spec.rb b/spec/requests/users_controller_spec.rb
index 5373f4c05..ad88ee9ce 100644
--- a/spec/requests/users_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/requests/users_controller_spec.rb
@@ -1613,7 +1613,7 @@ RSpec.describe UsersController, type: :request do
         it "shows an error" do
           request
           expect(response).to have_http_status(:unprocessable_entity)
-          expect(page).to have_content(I18n.t("validations.email.taken"))
+          expect(page).to have_content(I18n.t("activerecord.errors.models.user.attributes.email.taken"))
         end
       end