The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7329 p863
11 December 2004

Society summary

New consultation needed on Council election regulations

Members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society are to be consulted for a second time on regulations governing the election and appointment of members of the future Council.

The revised proposed regulations follow from a new set of changes required by the Department of Health since the first consultation two months ago.

The Council agreed its original proposals for election regulations at a meeting in September (PJ, 2 October, p497). These proposals were set out for consultation in the 2 October issue of The Journal (p499) for the required 60-day period of consultation.

The Society had previously cleared with the Department of Health its intention to consult on the proposed regulations before the new Charter had been sealed. This was to allow the regulations to come into force in time for the Council election to be completed before the 2005 AGM. The Society sent the proposed regulations to the Department of Health and Privy Council Office and received comments on them in early November.

The intention was for the Council to confirm the regulations at its December meeting, after the sealing of the Charter. However, the Department of Health has now decided that it requires certain minor and some more substantial changes to the regulations. The significant changes are set out in the Panel.

In addition, given that the revised regulations will be made under the new Charter, the Department said that they must be published only after the Charter has been both sealed and brought into force. To allow the Society to meet its Charter requirement of bringing the reformed Council into being on the day after the 2005 annual general meeting (assuming there are no further hold-ups), the Charter was therefore sealed on 7 December — the first day of the Council’s December meeting — and was brought into force on the same day, which was earlier than had been expected.

Having the Charter in force allowed the Council to agree the revised regulations in time for immediate publication through an Official Notice in this issue of The Journal (see p868).

But, if the Society is to meet its Charter requirement of bringing the reformed Council into being on the day after the 2005 AGM, the need for a second 60-day consultation has some repercussions for the timetabling of Society activities. The Society has had to alter its election timetable so that calls for election nominations will be made, on a conditional basis, in January 2005, about a month before the election regulations are expected to be finally approved. And, because the new Council must be ready to take office on the day after the AGM, that meeting is to move back from Wednesday 11 May to Tuesday 24 May 2005. (There is only limited opportunity to reschedule it because the Society’s Byelaws require it to take place during May.)

Having to move the AGM also means that the branch representatives’ meeting, traditionally held on the day after the AGM, will now take place on Wednesday 25 May 2005.

The Society’s Secretary and Registrar, Ann Lewis, said: “The Society regrets the necessity for these changes to the Society’s timetable but we hope that the members will understand that these new developments are beyond our control. We are writing to our branches right away to inform them as early as possible of the new dates for these important meetings. We hope that members will not be overly inconvenienced by the change in timetable.”