The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7241 p415
22 March 2003

Society summary

Consultation document seeks members' views on changing the Society's Charter

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Council is asking pharmacists to examine and comment on a suggested draft new Royal Charter for the Society, which will add a number of powers to those contained in the current Charter and will broaden some of the existing powers.

Following last week's announcement that the Council intends to seek a new Charter, the draft is set out in a consultation paper (PDF 165K)that forms an eight-page pull-out section in this week's Pharmaceutical Journal. The paper gives the full text of both the current Charter and the draft and provides a table comparing the two.

The document is careful to explain that the draft is no more than an indicator of how things might look, based on the legal advice that has been taken to date and the comments of the Council.

The Council asks members for their initial views by 22 April to help inform discussion at the Society's annual general meeting and branch representatives' meeting.

Explanatory notes within the consultation paper state that the Council's aim is to ensure that the Society continues to enjoy the flexibility and autonomy of a body incorporated and governed by Charter. The new Charter should ensure that the Society is fully equipped and empowered to fulfil its integrated functions and strengthen its wider professional role, the paper says.

The document goes on to explain that a Royal Charter is a way of turning a body from a collection of individuals into a single legal entity with all the powers of a person, including the power to hold property and act in its own right. New grants of Royal Charters are generally reserved for professional bodies and charities, for both of which incorporation by Charter is presupposed to be in the public interest.

The paper says that the Society is governed by both Charter and legislation, with its chartered status giving it flexibility and autonomy and allowing it to undertake a broad range of activities beyond those defined in legislation, provided they do not conflict with the public interest.

The paper says that, because a Charter is an enabling document, the objects and powers contained in it should be as broad and high-level as possible. The objects should be a succinct statement of purpose and the functions that support and derive from this should be stated in powers. The Charter should not list everything that the Society could do, but it should not prevent the Society from doing anything it currently does or should be doing.

The document goes on to state that the current Charter is out of date in a number of respects. For example, modern requirements for good governance mean that it should make explicit what is currently implicit, such as confirming that the Society's powers will be exercised for the public benefit; and describing the purposes for which the Society's assets may be used. It is also out of date in that the requirement to seek Privy Council approval for all Byelaw changes limits the Society's ability to regulate its internal affairs. The Charter's focus on advancing chemistry is no longer appropriate when many of today's medicines derive from the biological sciences. In addition, the provisions relating to property are out of date. All these deficiencies are remedied in the draft.

The paper says that the draft Charter has been designed to remedy such anomalies and to ensure that the Society is properly equipped for its role as a modern regulator and professional body, with clear and appropriate powers and functions.

The reasons for seeking a new Charter are set out in the recital that begins the draft. This refers to representation by the Council that "the Society should in the public interest be more appropriately equipped to function both as a modern regulator and to lead the strategic development and policies of the profession, and support the science and practice of pharmacy and to contribute to the wider public debate on the role of the profession of pharmacy in contributing to the health of the public".

The document says that, in setting out the Society's objects, the draft makes explicit the Society's function of protecting the public through professional regulation, allowing the Charter to better reflect the Society's functions of leading, developing and regulating the pharmacy profession. It carries forward the promotion of members' interests in the exercise of the profession of pharmacy, but it broadens this to encompass others engaged in related activities. It makes explicit that these powers will be exercised consistent with the public benefit.

The draft carries forward the Society's powers set out in the current Charter but also lists a number of powers the Society has that are not explicitly set out in the current Charter. Among them are powers to promote public understanding of pharmacy, to maintain libraries and collections, to encourage, fund, commission and publish research, to insure the Society against potential liabilities, to co-operate with other bodies and to establish subsidiary organisations. Also set out are various financial powers and the power to carry on trade.