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Letters to the Editor
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The Society
What is the expenditure on fitness to practise?
From Dr T. J. Benson, MRPharmS
Further to the response from Bernard Kelly to John
Verrall (PJ, 11 September,
p348)I would ask the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to justify the need
for such an increase in staffing level. What has been the expenditure
on salaries for 2003 and the projected spend for 2004?
I ask the Society to publish how much it has spent on regulation and
enforcement from 1998 to the most recent available figures, and present
the data as a percentage of its total income for each year. By regulation
I mean the Professional Standards and Fitness to Practise directorate.
How much has been spent on “investigating” and “punishing” errant
members? What are the fees charged by Penningtons (solicitors) for its
work for the Society (hourly rates, documentation fees and other expenses)?
The company must have a list of such fees. How much has been paid to
it since 1998? How much is paid to the chairman of the Statutory Committee
for his activities? Apart from all of the latter, what other regulatory
and enforcement work is this firm of solicitors doing for the Society
and what have been the costs to date?
On the other hand, what is the Society doing to promote the interests
of its members and how much is it spending in so doing?
Tim Benson
London W1
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BERNARD KELLY, director of finance and resources, Royal Pharmaceutical
Society, replies:
The costs of salaries and related cost are published
in the annual financial statements, which are available from the Society’s
website or directly from the Secretary and Registrar.
The relevant figures for 2003 are:
|
(£000s) |
Salaries and wages
|
8,753 |
Social security
cost |
768 |
Other pension costs
|
1,218 |
|
|
Total |
10,739 |
|
The information requested by Dr Benson in regard to prior years’ analysis
of the costs of regulation and enforcement is not available as organisational
changes and the expansion of the Society’s activities would render any
year-on-year comparison meaningless. However, I can report that as illustrated
in the Council Review for 2003 that Expenditure on Professional Standards, which
includes the costs of the inspectors and the Animal Medicines Division, amounted
to £2,630,000. This represented 10.7 per cent of the Society’s
total expenditure for the year or 11.4 per cent of revenue for that year.
We are unable publish the detailed additional information requested by
Dr Benson for reasons of personal and commercial confidentiality. |
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal