Queen approves Society’s petition for new Charter
The 1843 Charter |
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s petition for the granting of a new Royal Charter has been approved by the Queen.
The application was approved on 13 October, when the Privy Council recommended
the grant of the Charter to Her Majesty. The Journal understands that
the Privy
Council did not make any further changes to the draft Charter
discussed at September’s Council meeting (PJ, 25 September, p445).
The Society’s President, Nicholas Wood, said: “I am absolutely
delighted that Her Majesty has approved the grant of the Charter — this
is a historic and monumental day for the profession. There is a huge
benefit in having these twin pillars of the Society’s governance — Charter
and legislation — developed in a complementary way.”
Mr Wood added: “The Society is now in a strong position to develop
its special remit both as a chartered professional body as well as a
regulator. The new Charter gives us a platform to move on to the many
exciting challenges that face pharmacy today.”
The next stage is for the Privy Council to arrange for the Charter document
to be printed on vellum. A warrant, which is the Royal authority for
the Charter to be sealed, will then be arranged by the Department for
Constitutional Affairs. Finally, the Charter will be sealed, using the
Great Seal, by the Crown Office.
It is expected that the charter will be sealed by 24 November, so the
Charter will become known as the “2004 Charter”. However,
it will not come into effect until later. Although the date has yet to
be finalised, and will be determined by the Clerk of the Privy Council,
1 January 2005 seems likely since it is the date requested by the Society.
Although for all practical purposes, the 2004 Charter is a “new” Charter,
technically and legally it is a supplemental Charter, since it retains
the incorporation effect of the original 1843 Charter. However, the 2004
Charter revokes and replaces all of the 1953 Charter.
The final text of the new Charter will be published in The Journal once
the seal has been applied to the vellum document. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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