RPS’ Constitution & Governance Review

The proposed Royal College of Pharmacy will always be profession-led, with those elected from the membership (that is, those registered or formerly registered as a pharmacist with the GPhC) holding the majority of roles throughout the proposed governance leadership structure.

The Trustee Board will always be made up of a majority of those elected from the membership. In the current proposal it is five Members (drawn from the Senate) to four appointed Trustees. The Trustee Board has the flexibility to have up to 12 roles, with the possibility of adding three additional roles in the future if the need arises. However, regardless of how many roles exist on the Trustee Board, it is proposed that the new Regulations for the Royal College of Pharmacy will state that the majority of Trustees will always be drawn from the Senate. 

Whilst for the four appointed roles on the Trustee Board there is no requirement to be a pharmacist, neither is there a stipulation that the place cannot be filled by a pharmacist - pharmacists will be welcome to apply for the appointed Trustee roles if they hold the additional specialist Trustee experience sought for these roles. Assembly is aware that some members are deterred from standing for election to Assembly due to perceptions about the skills needed at this level so we hope that building more flexibility into the Board of Trustees will allow members to stand with confidence in the knowledge that specialist financial knowledge is not required.

As we do now, we will continue to populate our governance by elections, where those standing for election are full Members of the Royal College and those voting are full Members of the Royal College. At the level of National Councils all positions will therefore be from the profession. This will be described in the Regulations. The Senate will be comprised of 11 positions drawn from the National Councils and four positions appointed. This will also be described in the Regulations.

As part of the C&G review we looked at the corporate structure of many other health and medical royal colleges and professional leadership bodies. Most were charities, while most of the others who were not charities were unions – RPS is neither, and in reviewing the options it was identified that charitable registration was the best fit for the organisation and aligns with many other royal colleges.

A successful application for charitable status will create independent regulation for the organisation and address some of our members’ questions about transparency in our operations. It also signifies to those in the healthcare space that our focus is on the wellbeing of patients and the public, through the work of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists. We will still work very closely with our partner charity Pharmacist Support, read our joint statement here.

The Society is incorporated by royal charter, and its assets (buildings, cash, intellectual property, etc.) are legally owned by RPS as an incorporated body. The royal college, as the successor body to the Society, will retain ownership of these assets.

Members of RPS already benefit from the success of the RPS’ knowledge business and publishing house Pharmaceutical Press (PhP) which provides its surplus (profits) to the professional leadership body to ensure the financial sustainability of the PLB and support professional leadership body activities. In the new structure PhP will be wholly owned by the royal college and will be freed to become more entrepreneurial and will continue to transfer surpluses, including any increase in surplus enabled by this change, to the proposed royal college charity.

The Constitution and Governance (C&G) programme will not impact membership fees. RPS currently enjoys a sound financial position thanks to careful management and the continuing commercial success of Pharmaceutical Press, and has built up sufficient funding to pay for strategic projects like this.

The C&G project and proposals for change are funded from monies reserved for strategic purposes, drawn from the ‘surplus’ income (ie profits) raised by Pharmaceutical Press. This is how much of RPS’s professional leadership activity is funded - and is how future strategic projects will be funded.

The RPS has both pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists in membership.

Assembly’s decision to set these proposals before the membership with the new organisation named the Royal College of Pharmacy, reflects this. Further, taking a widely available definition, pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. Using the word Pharmacy in our name therefore speaks directly to the organisation’s mission and vision as well as its membership.

We believe the proposed changes will have a beneficial impact on the whole of pharmacy. The effect of a Royal College of Pharmacy raising awareness and understanding of pharmacy and the work of pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists and the wider pharmacy team will ensure that policymakers and the public better understand and value the work of pharmacy professionals to the mutual benefit of all.

The proposed changes will provide greater clarity of our role and purpose and help us to be a more effective partner. We are committed to continuing to work collaboratively with all organisations serving pharmacists and other pharmacy professionals.

Changes to our Royal Charter and our ambition to become a royal college are the focus of these proposals for change and Special Resolution Vote, rather than any conversations about future collaborative relationships, though we are committed to continuing to work collaboratively with partners and with other specialist pharmacy groups and professional leadership bodies. We have received multiple questions about the different types of organisations and how they are defined and how they differ from each other – so we have some helpful definitions here in this list (which comes from the ‘definitions’ section in the full FAQ).

Professional leadership body

Champions and advances a profession or discipline, elevating professional standards, promoting professional development, setting ethical guidelines and advocating through policy and practice changes. Eg, RPS, APTUK, health and medical royal colleges.

Trade union

Represents the interests of a specified group or groups of workers regarding employment rights and promotes the interests of the workers it represents through collective bargaining. (In pharmacy this would include PDA, GHP).

Trade body

Also known as a trade association, business association, or industry body, is an organisation founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. (In pharmacy this would include NPA, CCA).

Regulator

‘Regulator’ is a defined term in the Professional Qualifications Act. Regulators carry out a range of functions in relation to the professions they regulate, including making sure individuals have the necessary qualifications and/or experience to practise the profession and taking any necessary enforcement action. In pharmacy the regulator is the GPhC and is responsible for setting and enforcing standards of practice to protect the public by overseeing pharmacy professionals' conduct and competence. In pharmacy membership of the regulator GPhC is compulsory for both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.

Negotiating body

Focuses on negotiating contractual terms of service (normally with government). In pharmacy the negotiator for the community sector is country-specific ie Community Pharmacy Wales (CPW), Community Pharmacy England (CPE) and Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS).

It is correct to say that proposed changes to the RPS Regulations must be gazetted to the membership for 60 days. However, at this time (March 2025), RPS is not seeking to change the Regulations. At this point in time (March 2025) we are only seeking to change RPS' Royal Charter, which requires a different process involving approval from the Privy Council together with a Special Resolution Vote by the membership. These rigorous processes are currently being followed. 

Now that members have voted in favour of the changes to the Royal Charter and to become the Royal College of Pharmacy, this will necessitate changes to the Regulations in due course – and Assembly will instruct draft changes, gazette these to the membership for 60 days (which means publishing them on the RPS website and in the Pharmaceutical Journal) and consider submissions from the membership at the appropriate time in advance of implementation of becoming the Royal College of Pharmacy. Our FAQs, roadshows and webinars have given members the headlines as to proposed changes to the Regulations. If we receive approval to progress our proposal for change we expect to apply to become a charity later in 2025, at which time we will follow the Regulation gazetting process. The Regulations were not the subject matter of the Special Resolution Vote, which took place between 13 and 24 March 2025.  

In March 2025 we received a legal letter by Gately Legal sent ‘on behalf of a number of members of the RPS’. As the points raised were legal in nature we asked our solicitors Bates Wells to respond to the points raised. In the spirit of transparency we are have published this response from our solicitors here.

As the professional leadership body for pharmacy and following an 18 month-long process and a unanimous vote by our governing body the Assembly, it was agreed that RPS should move to a structure that better supports its professional leadership activities and ambitions.

It is proposed that RPS:

• Moves to become a registered charity
• Creates a Trustee Board to run the charity
• Retains Assembly for professional leadership and Country Boards to recognise devolved healthcare
• Seeks to become a Royal College
• Creates Pharmaceutical Press as a wholly owned (limited) subsidiary.

We will seek to secure the support of our members and of the Privy Council, the Cabinet Office and the Charity regulators for England and Wales, and Scotland in order to enact this change.

A Royal College is a recognised entity in the health and care system and by the policymakers we seek to influence.

The proposed change to becoming a Royal College would mean that pharmacy professional leadership will take its seat alongside the professional leadership bodies of other health and medical Royal Colleges. As a Royal College we will continue to enhance and develop our core activities as a professional leadership body – those of education, assessment and credentialling, standards and guidance, science and research and patient safety – all activities typically undertaken by a Royal College.

In addition the media and increasingly the public understand what a Royal College is (ie a trusted health or medical organisation), which is why we strongly believe that as a Royal College we will have a louder and more effective voice and be more able to raise the profile of pharmacy, advocate for change, champion the role of pharmacists and the pharmacy team and advance the safe and effective use of medicines for the benefit of patients and the public.

In the new structure Pharmaceutical Press (PhP) will be freed to become more entrepreneurial and will continue to transfer its surplus (ie profits), including any increase in surplus enabled by this change, to the proposed Royal College charity. This means that membership fees will not be negatively impacted by this proposed change and it is also expected that the financial sustainability of the PLB will be enhanced by this change.

At present our name is more like that of a Learned Society which focuses on the study and promotion of a specific academic discipline or subject, examples include the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Royal Society of Biology or Institute of Physics. There are also Royal scientific societies such as the Royal Society or Royal Scientific Society.

In contrast, the definition of a Royal College is that it sets the curriculum for postgraduate education within their specialities (in our case, we set and assure the UK post-registration curricula).

It’s good practice for organisations like ours to undertake a governance review from time to time, and we hadn’t done this since 2010, so it was overdue.

We had also heard from members, elected members and others, including at our AGM in 2022 and an independent review (by Luther Pendragon) in the same year, that our governance was not best constituted to help the RPS achieve its aims. We therefore said in February 2023 that we would commission a full review of its constitution and supporting governance structures as part of our evolution as the professional leadership body for pharmacy.

Our Constitution & Governance review has been a rigorous 18-month process beginning in February 2023, and comprising:

• An open tender process and the appointment of respected specialist agency Firetail, who conducted an independent in-depth review of our governance and constitution
• The Firetail review included interviews, market research, benchmarking, stakeholder interviews and a membership survey
• Firetail delivered a 60-page evidence pack with a scored options appraisal for Assembly to consider
• Assembly worked with Firetail and the Programme Steering Group to review proposals, consider the member research, and iteratively critique the proposals before making the final decision
• The process included discussions at each Country Board.

You can read more about the background, original tender invitation and the process on our website here:

• www.rpharms.com/about-us/news/details/rps-to-review-constitution-and-governance-structures
• www.rpharms.com/about-us/who-we-are/constitution-and-governance-review

Firetail specialises in research, insight and advice regarding governance and organisational strategy. They were appointed by the RPS Assembly, the RPS' governing body, after a competitive procurement process. Firetail undertook a full programme of research including review and analysis, comparisons of similar organisations across healthcare, in-depth interviews with key figures across the pharmacy ecosystem, member surveys and attendance and review of governance meetings throughout the RPS. The full report of Firetail's confidential findings and analysis was for the review and scrutiny of Assembly alone, as part of their considerations ahead of formulating a proposal and is therefore not for onward sharing.

In March 2024, Assembly voted unanimously for the proposal and tasked the Constitution & Governance steering group with appointing and consulting with legal and financial experts to ensure that we had viable proposals for change, agreed by Assembly, to put forward to our membership.

In July 2024, we took this more detailed proposal to Assembly and, following debate and refinement, they again unanimously agreed to the proposals. We are now setting out the proposal and case for change to our membership and the wider pharmacy community and will engage with members and potential members over the autumn with a view to introducing a special resolution for members to vote on early in 2025, depending on the Privy Council’s timeline regarding this.

Yes. When we started this process over 18 months ago the initial activities included a series of stakeholder interviews and a member survey. The responses received were used to inform the development of our proposal. In October and November 2024 we hosted a series of engagement roadshow events across GB, in person and online to talk to pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists (whether members or not) about these proposed changes. There was a wide variety of attendees at these events, including students and early career pharmacists. The discussion and feedback had during these roadshow events can be read in detail in the published Roadshow Report.

Since then, we have been actively reaching out to members and non-members via our social media channels, website and direct communications to keep everyone informed, particularly when we published our proposed changes to the Royal Charter in February. We also hosted a webinar open to pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists (whether members or not) which explained the proposed Charter changes in detail. A recording of the webinar can be watched here.

Under these arrangements, our existing knowledge business, Pharmaceutical Press would become a wholly owned trading subsidiary called Pharmaceutical Press Ltd which would be accountable to the charitable entity.

Visit our website

We strongly believe that members of a new Royal College of Pharmacy will benefit from this change – because the stronger and more influential the professional leadership body for pharmacy is the stronger pharmacy will be.

The Royal College of Pharmacy will benefit from the name recognition that the term ‘Royal College’ now has particularly with the media and with policymakers – which will enable us to have a stronger voice in the media and with legislators across GB.

Yes, as a Royal College, our members will have new post nominals that clearly specify membership of the Royal College of Pharmacy. While no final decision has been made, we expect that these post nominals will be RCPharm – so for example MRCPharm and FRCPharm.

Members of RPS already benefit from the success of the RPS’ knowledge business and publishing house Pharmaceutical Press (PhP) which provides its surplus (profits) to the professional leadership body to ensure the financial sustainability of the PLB and support professional leadership body activities. In the new structure PhP will be wholly owned by the Royal College and will be freed to become more entrepreneurial and will continue to transfer surpluses, including any increase in surplus enabled by this change, to the proposed Royal College charity.

No, and we have ambitious plans to improve the experience of our members. Alongside our existing member benefits, products and resources we know are valued by our members, such as the Pharmaceutical Journal (PJ), MEP, Pharmacy Guides and our professional support, we are transforming the online experience for members and continuing to enhance our education and professional development resources.

We are also increasing and improving the ways members can engage with each other and with RPS, both online and at local in-person events.

No. The changes we are making will simplify and modernise our Charter making us more adaptable to change in future without the extensive Privy Council Charter change process.

Under the proposed changes elected members will still make up the majority of positions on all of our governance structures, and members will continue to have influence and agency for example to put forward motions to the AGM, or participate in member consultations and take part in member votes.

We continue to believe that Pharmaceutical Scientists are an integral part of the pharmacy system with an important part to play in our vision of medicines safety. They will therefore continue to be a valued part of our community and membership.

No. We have however taken the opportunity to tidy up some of the lack of clarity that exists between the current Charter and the Regulations about Associate Members. The proposed Charter more clearly articulates that Associate Members do not hold the same status as full Members. Whilst the new Royal College would be able, as RPS can now, to create new categories of Associate Member, a Special Resolution Vote would be required in order to create new categories of full Members.

The professional membership tax deduction for individuals working in the pharmaceutical sector will still be available (either in their own self-assessment tax return or as a tax-free benefit if paid by their employers) when the organisation becomes a charity. This is however on the basis that Gift Aid cannot be claimed. In addition, professional indemnity insurance will be deductible for individuals in practice.

Please be reassured that this process will not be affected by the proposed changes. As the RPS transitions into a royal college, we will continue to perform our delegated function to certify individuals as eligible for nomination as QPs and will continue to maintain a list of RPS members that are eligible to act as QPs.

RPS has been developing its credentialing model over the last four to five years, working in collaboration with the pharmacy profession. We are really ambitious for this work, and while we recognise that introducing a new system of assurance is always going to be challenging and that there will be growing pains - we are determined to learn, adapt and collaborate – and by doing so realise our ambitions for credentialing.

But there is much more to do, and we need to continue to work in partnership with many others in the pharmacy ecosystem to ensure the full value of credentialing can be realised, to the benefit of pharmacists, pharmacy, patients and the public.

The key purpose of RPS credentialing is to protect the public and the integrity of the pharmacy profession through assuring patient-focused pharmacists (i.e. roles that have a direct impact on individual patients and/or patient populations) working at advancing levels of post-registration practice. Defining and assuring post-registration professional standards is a fundamental activity for a royal college, and thus fully aligned to our proposals for change.

Credentialing provides considerable benefits for pharmacists and the system. For a pharmacist, credentialing can support a standard professional career structure which offers potential for advancement. Credentialing also engenders professional confidence and pride, increases professional cohesion, and provides a mechanism by which the skills and capability of an individual are recognised. We have also heard from candidates of the benefits they have gained from successfully undertaking credentialing; including increased confidence, improved practice and greater integration within the wider multidisciplinary team.

For the employer and wider system credentialing provides an objective and validated assurance mechanism for employee capability within and across organisations which can inform fair and valid career progression and recruitment decisions, assure consistency across the system and improve workforce portability. It also provides a mechanism by which other health professionals and patients can recognise the level of practice of the pharmacy workforce. We have heard of pharmacists having to ‘re-prove’ their level of practice when they have moved employer, sector, or location, with some having to restart a training pathway from scratch to meet specific regional or national training requirements. This is not efficient or effective for the service, the employer or the pharmacist and is addressed by embedding credentialing in the profession.

We recognise that currently there are system barriers for community pharmacists accessing credentialing. There are examples of these barriers being challenged (particularly in Scotland and Wales), and as the model of service delivery evolves community pharmacists should increasingly be able to demonstrate their level of practice through the credentialing approach.

We are particularly determined to find ways that long-standing practitioners evidence their level in a practicable way, and are conscious of the needs of those who have gained extensive skills over may years of practice without the need previously to formally describe and document these.

The purpose of credentialing is assurance for patients, and so it is designed for those in patient focussed roles. However, we recognise that credentials also can confer recognition, and we hear loud and clear that those in roles that are not patient focussed are keen for a mechanism for recognition.

This will take time and wider collaboration to create, and is part of our ongoing consideration of how we can support our members and the wider profession.

Whilst RPS has a key role to play we recognise the need to work with others, across academia and employers and the health and care system and leadership, in order to ensure credentialing works for the patient, the pharmacist, the employer and the system.

We recognise that collaboration is vital in order to enable the integration of credentialing, and we are committed to continued engagement with employers across GB during 2025 and beyond to highlight the value of credentialing for them and their employed pharmacists. We will continue working closely with the Chief Pharmaceutical Officers, Pharmacy Deans and other NHS leaders, and will collaborate with professional representative bodies and other stakeholders, to demonstrate the value credentialing brings to the profession, patients and the wider healthcare system.

Royal colleges are recognised for being at the forefront of supporting the education, learning and professional development of their members, for the benefit of patients and the public.

As a royal college we intend to enhance our existing education and learning provision to create educational activities to meet the changing demands of pharmacists’ roles, support them in the delivery of services and foster a culture that supports continual improvement.

We heard from many members during the roadshow events who also feel that becoming a royal college will play a very important role in supporting the professional development of both members and non-members in the future.

Entry to the profession is overseen by the regulator, the General Pharmaceutical Council, and this will not be affected by our proposals.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the Royal Society of Biology and Royal Society of Chemistry (the Joint Professional Bodies or JPB) are required by the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate to certify individuals as eligible for nomination as a Qualified Person (QP). This will continue if the RPS is successful in its proposal to become the Royal College of Pharmacy.

Legislation refers to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in respect of the operation of the Qualified Persons Scheme. As part of the process of updating the Royal Charter with the Privy Council Office, the government will be notified of the need to update the relevant legislation to refer to the Royal College of Pharmacy.

The RPS has both Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Scientists in membership. Assembly’s decision to set these proposals before the membership with the new organisation named the Royal College of Pharmacy, reflects this.

Further, taking a widely available definition, pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. Using the word Pharmacy in our name therefore speaks directly to the organisation’s mission and vision as well as its membership.

We undertook this Constitution & Governance review as part of our evolution as the professional leadership body for pharmacy and because we heard from members and elected members that our governance was not very clear or transparent.

These proposals will enable our governance to be appropriate to our mission and vision and, as a charity the new Royal College of Pharmacy will have regulatory oversight from the Charity Commission and OSCR, which is typical for an organisation such as ours.

As well as a more appropriate constitution and governance framework and structure, we want to continue to improve the ways we communicate with and seek the views of our members, in terms of opportunities to share their views and also communicating effectively the decisions of our elected members.

RPS recognises and respects the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) as the professional leadership body for Pharmacy Technicians in the UK.

While the relationship between RPS and Pharmacy Technicians is not part of our C&G review, we have said that we are open to a future discussion with APTUK as the professional leadership body for Pharmacy Technicians about ways we can come together in terms of professional leadership, and with an understanding of Pharmacy Technicians as fellow pharmacy professionals under the same regulator.

Discussions between the two professional bodies (RPS and APTUK), would therefore be the starting point for any professional conversations in the future.

In addition it would also be vital to ensure the support of members of both organisations for any proposed future change. It is not for RPS to seek to impose a decision on either the membership of another organisation or indeed our own members, without appropriate consultation, discussion, and agreement.

Any discussions held in the future would need to be collaborative and involve appropriate consultation and agreement on all sides. And whilst RPS is aware that other pharmacy specialist interest groups are interested in deepening their relationship with us, we similarly do not seek to enact any such change as part of this proposal as it is a matter for collaborative discussion. In the meantime, we are keen to continue to build relationships and work more closely with APTUK and pharmacy specialist interest groups in terms of future opportunities.

The proposed royal college will not be a public body. Public body organisations are publicly funded to deliver a public or government service. Such bodies are commonly operated by the government. If the RPS successfully registers as a charity called the Royal College of Pharmacy, it will continue to be an independent legal entity incorporated by Royal Charter with a constitution that describes its activities in line with its charitable status. Its funding will continue to be predominantly through its membership and publishing activities.

We are committed to strengthening the partnership with Pharmacist Support. The intention, both now and into the future, is for the Royal College of Pharmacy to deliver object 31(c) by supporting and working in partnership with the independent charity Pharmacist Support in delivering its vital work.

We’ve issued a joint statement with Pharmacist Support explaining what this means for our work together.

You can explore the proposed changes to our Royal Charter and the detail of the Special Resolution Vote on our dedicated website pages here.

As the RPS moves to become a charity we need to precisely define our charitable purposes from a pre-defined list, which can be found in section 3 of the Charities Act 2011. There are equivalent provisions in Scotland in the Charities & Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.

In consultation with the charity regulators, the Royal College of Pharmacy will focus on objects permitted by s3(1)(b) “the advancement of education”, s3(1) (d) “the advancement of health or saving lives” and s3(1)(a) “the prevention and relief of poverty” – the latter object was required by the Charity Commission in order to preserve RPS’s current ‘power’ to grant monies to prevent hardship of those connected to pharmacy. Despite this change of wording, we intend to achieve this by continuing with our existing scope of activity, as well as working alongside specialist partners in the same way as we have done for many years.

These categories form the basis of our objects. The objects represent what we are here to do; if we do not include activities within our objects we cannot pursue them. The powers describe the activities we will undertake in order to deliver the objects. Similarly, if we do not describe an activity within our powers we cannot undertake it.

The Charter is therefore written using a very specific set of words with defined parameters and expectations of the ‘objects’ and ‘powers’, which should be read and understood in their entirety. Any organisation seeking to become a registered charity is expected to undertake activities for the benefit of the public – therefore the wording of the ‘powers’ and ‘objects’ reference the support of professionals, as well as the growth and development of the profession in order to support the public.

We have published the proposed changes to the Royal Charter in a number of different formats, so that you can find the level of detail that’s best for you to fully understand the changes being proposed.

We have been asked this question in a number of ways and would also reference the answer to the question about the benefits of RPS becoming a royal college and the definition section. It is not straightforward to compare royal colleges as they have a variety of different functions – some include union functions, which the RPS and proposed Royal College of Pharmacy does not.

While we did examine other royal colleges when considering our objects, it’s important to note the date on which they achieved charitable status, as charity law evolves over time therefore all are bound by the law in force at the time of application. Most importantly, the current Charities Act 2011 requires us to define our activities by reference to a list contained within this act and word them in a specific way that will be approved by the charity regulators and Privy Council Office.

As we set out at the start of the process, we are building as much flexibility into our governance documentation and organisational design as possible, so we do not need to undertake another Charter change process for hopefully 10 to 20 years or more.

The Charter sets out the framework under which the organisation will operate while enabling the decision making to happen at the appropriate governance level without necessitating a Special Resolution Vote (SRV) in order to make operational changes. The Charter is the only part of our governance documentation that requires a Special Resolution Vote (SRV) to change. A Special Resolution Vote will still be required in future to make significant governance changes to the Royal College of Pharmacy, such as introducing a new category of (full) Member.

We have published a tracked changes version of the proposed Charter, which clearly shows what is being removed from the current Charter, which will in future be held in the Regulations. For example, the proposed Charter sets out the function of the governance boards and it is for the Regulations to make provision for the composition of each level of governance.

Following a supportive SRV by members on the proposed Charter changes and becoming a royal college, there would be a considerable period of time before the new Regulations would be enacted. The process for this is gazetting the Regulations, that is, placing them before our membership for 60 days to give the opportunity for a final review and any final comments ahead of enacting them alongside our change into a charity, which wouldn’t be expected to take until April 2026.

Changing a Royal Charter and achieving charitable status is a complex process requiring several stages of informal approval from the Privy Council Office, the Charity Commission and OSCR as well as legal considerations ahead of asking members to vote. We shared the proposed Charter wording with the membership at the earliest possible point in this process, having received and implemented sufficient feedback from the charity regulators to ensure that any further changes required by them after the vote are likely to only be semantic.

The proposed Royal College of Pharmacy will always be profession led, with those elected from the membership (that is, those registered or formerly registered as a pharmacist with the GPhC) holding the majority of roles throughout the proposed governance leadership structure.

The Trustee Board will always be made up of a majority of those elected from the membership. In the current proposal it is five Members (drawn from the Senate) to four appointed Trustees. The Trustee Board has the flexibility to have up to 12 roles, with the possibility of adding three additional roles in the future if the need arises. However, regardless of how many roles exist on the Trustee Board, it is proposed that the new Regulations for the Royal College of Pharmacy will state that the majority of Trustees will always be drawn from the Senate.

Whilst for the four appointed roles on the Trustee Board there is no requirement to be a pharmacist, neither is there a stipulation that the place cannot be filled by a pharmacist - pharmacists will be welcome to apply for the appointed Trustee roles if they hold the additional specialist Trustee experience sought for these roles. Assembly is aware that some members are deterred from standing for election to Assembly due to perceptions about the skills needed at this level so we hope that building more flexibility into the Board of Trustees will allow members to stand with confidence in the knowledge that specialist financial knowledge is not required.

As we do now, we will continue to populate our governance by elections, where those standing for election are full Members of the Royal College and those voting are full Members of the Royal College. At the level of National Councils all positions will therefore be from the profession. This will be described in the Regulations. The Senate will be comprised of 11 positions drawn from the National Councils and four positions appointed. This will also be described in the Regulations.

There are a number of places where legislation refers to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, either because of its historic position as the pharmacy regulatory body before 2010 or because of current legislative duties such as operation of the Qualified Persons Scheme. As part of the process of updating the Royal Charter with the Privy Council Office, the government will be notified of the need to update the relevant legislation to refer to the Royal College of Pharmacy where the relevant obligations are continuing. In some situations, such as Regulation 12, 19 and 21 of the Controlled Drugs (Supervision of Management and Use) (Wales) Regulations 2008/3239 these powers should now be under the GPhC in any case.

It is correct to say that proposed changes to the RPS Regulations must be gazetted to the membership for 60 days. However, at this time, RPS is not seeking to change the Regulations. At this point in time we are only seeking to change RPS' Royal Charter, which requires a different process involving approval from the Privy Council together with a Special Resolution Vote by the membership. These rigorous processes are currently being followed, and members are able to cast their vote on the proposed changes to RPS' Royal Charter and becoming the Royal College of Pharmacy until 5pm on 24 March.

If members vote in favour of the changes to the Royal Charter to become the Royal College of Pharmacy, this will then necessitate changes to the Regulations in due course – and Assembly will instruct draft changes, gazette these to the membership for 60 days (which means publishing them on the RPS website and in the Pharmaceutical Journal) and consider submissions from the membership at the appropriate time in advance of implementation of becoming the Royal College of Pharmacy. Our FAQs, roadshows and webinars have given members the headlines as to proposed changes to the Regulations. If we receive approval to progress our proposal for change we expect to apply to become a charity later in 2025, at which time we will follow the Regulation gazetting process. The Regulations are not the subject matter of the Special Resolution Vote open between 13 and 24 March 2025. If the members do not vote in favour of changes to the Royal Charter, no changes to the Regulations would be needed.

Our Regulations are a legal framework which details rules, guidelines and procedures as to how the organisation should be run. Regulations are closely aligned to, but separate from, our Royal Charter.

Due to the transitional nature of becoming the Royal College of Pharmacy, we need to establish new Regulations in two phases. The first phase is to enact a set of interim transition Regulations to enable us to hold elections for the new royal college structure in early 2026 and to transfer the Pharmaceutical Press into a subsidiary company. The second phase is to replace these transitional Regulations with new Regulations that underpin the new Royal College of Pharmacy, which will be enacted alongside our change into a charity. We expect that this will take place in April 2026, although this remains dependent on the final approvals of the Charity Commission and the Privy Council.

RPS is ‘gazetting’ the draft interim transition Regulations between Monday 20 October and Friday 19 December 2025. All RPS members can share their views by completing this online form.

Only RPS members are able to submit feedback and share their views during the ‘gazetting’ period.

In order to progress these proposals, we need to seek Charter change. The process for changing the Charter is a Special Resolution Vote, which follows the SRV process. On Wednesday 12 February 2025 we published the proposed changes to our Royal Charter and details of an all-member vote (SRV) that will pave the way for our transition to become a royal college.

The full process for the Special Resolution Vote is available on our website.

We are adhering to our current Royal Charter and Regulations and following a strict, legal process in regards to the SRV. The Charter and Regulations set out the process under which a Special Resolution Vote must be held at RPS. Additional wording in the Regulations can clarify or supplement the provisions in the Charter, but cannot supercede the Charter, which takes precedence in interpretation. Mi-Voice are acting as the independent Scrutineer.

In the SRV, two-thirds of those members who vote must vote in support of the resolution for it to be confirmed (i.e. pass). It is NOT a requirement for two-thirds of all members to cast a vote in support of the resolution. There is no minimum turnout required however we are actively encouraging all members to cast their vote, and hope for a good turnout.

Charter change requires a Special Resolution Vote of the membership. In the SRV, two-thirds of those members who vote must vote in support of the resolutions for it to be confirmed (i.e. pass).

We have looked at clause 1.1.1 of the Regulations in relation to Special Resolution Votes. RPS confirms that we have taken account of this and also of clauses 11 and 12 of the current Charter in relation to the SRV.

Please note that the current Charter takes precedence over the Regulations where there is any conflict in wording. The Regulations can supplement the interpretation of the Charter but cannot contradict it. The Charter requires “not less than a two-thirds majority of the votes of such members” for an SRV to succeed.

RPS encourages all eligible members to vote. If a person does not cast a vote, then there is no vote to include when calculating whether the required threshold has been met. By analogy we can look at s.283 Companies Act 2006, where a special resolution of a Companies Act company is passed if approved (on a poll) by ‘members representing not less than 75% of the total voting rights of the members who (being entitled to do so) vote’.

You can also read a response from RPS' solicitors, Bates Wells, clarifying this point.

We have recently been sent a legal letter by Gately Legal sent ‘on behalf of a number of members of the RPS’. As the points raised were legal in nature we asked our solicitors Bates Wells to respond to the points raised. In the spirit of transparency we are now publishing this response from our solicitors here.

According to the current RPS Charter, Regulations and SRV Scheme, if you are a pharmacist who is currently or ever has been registered with the pharmacy regulator (either the GPhC, or RPSGB when it was the regulator) and you are a Member (entitled to use MRPharmS) or Fellow (entitled to use the FRPharmS) of RPS on 28 February 2025, you are eligible to vote.

Eligibility to vote is not dependent on which country you live in or whether you’re retired or not currently working, as long as you meet the criteria above.

This means Associate Members, Pharmaceutical Scientists (unless they are either MRPharmS or FRPharmS) and student members are not eligible to vote.

Voting opens at 9am on Thursday, 13 March and closes at 5pm on Monday, 24 March 2025.

Anyone wishing to take part in the SRV must be a full member by Friday 28 February 2025.

Members requiring assistance with anything in regards to voting can contact Mi-Voice on 02380 763 987 or [email protected] Postal votes will need to be received by Mi-Voice before voting closes at 5pm on Monday, 24 March 2025.

Eligible members will need their membership number, surname and date of birth in order to cast their vote.

Once voting closes at 5pm on Monday, 24 March 2025 the votes will be counted and the results will be published as soon as practical thereafter. Following a successful vote, we will continue to follow the necessary constitutional and legal processes as set out by the Privy Council and the charity regulators in England, Wales and Scotland.

Yes he did and much has changed since then. The accelerated pace of change in the pharmacy landscape, in changes to the role of pharmacists and in the changes in medicines development, technology and med tech all mean that it is appropriate for RPS as the professional leadership body to respond and ensure it can support the increased expectations placed upon pharmacists and the pharmacy team.

See Paul's comments in The Pharmaceutical Journal.

We won’t need to rebrand – we will need to update the name and logo of the new organisation but we will retain our Coat of Arms and most of our designed assets, and will evolve our visual identity (meaning our designed assets such as publications and social media) therefore the costs are modest compared to a rebrand. We are already planning to redevelop our website so we will incorporate the updated name and design in this project.

Our current visual identity has been in place for a few years now, and it is usual practice to evolve an organisation’s visual identity over time so we would have expected to make some updates to our identity around this time.

Royal Charter
This is a document issued by the monarch, which has the effect of creating a legal entity, similar to a limited company but reporting to the Privy Council rather than Companies House. RPS was established by a Royal Charter in 1843, which was amended in 2010 when RPS demerged from GPhC. You can read our current Charter on the website.

Privy Council Office
The Privy Council Office represents the monarch’s public duties in various ways including the exercise of the administration activities around Royal Charters. They are the official office that will deal with RPS’s proposals to change our Royal Charter.

Charity Commission
The Charity Commission is the government body that reviews and grants applications for charitable status and checks that registered charities deliver their charitable objectives for the public good.

OSCR
OSCR is the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, which performs the same function of the Charity Commission in Scotland.

Charity
A charity is an organisation that exists to advance the public benefit in some way. It is usually an independent legal entity with a constitution (for example, a Royal Charter) that specifies its ‘charitable objectives’. A charity is run by a ‘Board of Trustees’, who are volunteers who safeguard the charitable objectives and ensure that the charity’s funds are all applied towards achieving those objectives.
A charity can have a structure with multiple levels of involvement and engagement including advisory boards and members as long as this advances a wider public benefit.
Charities are regulated (see above) and must comply with clearly defined governance and financial reporting requirements.

Trading subsidiary
A trading subsidiary is a company incorporated through Companies House where its shares are owned by the parent charity. It has its own ‘Board of Directors’ who make day to day decisions about operational and strategic direction, and usually at least one Director comes from the parent charity.
Although operationally independent, the profits from the trading subsidiary are given back to the parent charity and the trading subsidiary usually also has an agreement with the parent charity about using things like shared staff, premises, payroll services etc. A trading subsidiary can do things that don’t technically advance the parent charity’s public benefit, like selling products and services or advertising, but which make profits that the charity can then use for those charitable purposes.

Royal College
A Royal College is an organisation incorporated by a Royal Charter that has been permitted to call itself a Royal College with the permission of the Privy Council and the approval of the Monarch. Health and medical Royal Colleges are professional leadership bodies that typically focus on education, assessment and credentialing and on continuing professional development, as well as the setting of standards and guidance and advocating for the benefit of the public, patients and the profession.

Professional leadership body
Champions and advances a profession or discipline, elevating professional standards, promoting professional development, setting ethical guidelines and advocating through policy and practice changes. Eg, RPS, health and medical royal colleges

Trade union
Represents the interests of a specified group or groups of workers regarding employment rights and promotes the interests of the workers it represents through collective bargaining. (In pharmacy this would include PDA, GHP)

Trade body
Also known as a trade association, business association, or industry body, is an organisation founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. (In pharmacy this would include NPA, CCA)

Regulator
‘Regulator’ is a defined term in the Professional Qualifications Act. Regulators carry out a range of functions in relation to the professions they regulate, including making sure individuals have the necessary qualifications and/or experience to practise the profession and taking any necessary enforcement action. In pharmacy the regulator is the GPhC and is responsible for setting and enforcing standards of practice to protect the public by overseeing pharmacy professionals' conduct and competence. In pharmacy membership of the regulator GPhC is compulsory for both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.

Negotiating body
Focuses on negotiating contractual terms of service (normally with government. In pharmacy the negotiator for the community sector is country-specific CPE, CPW, CPS