Council agrees amendments to the Society's governance procedures
At the February
Council meeting, the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society agreed a number of amendments to the Society's governance procedures.
The main changes, made on the recommendation of the Council’s Governance
Committee, are as follows:
Council code of conduct The Council has amended the procedures to be
used when a complaint about a Council member is investigated under the
provisions of the code of conduct for Council members.
The Council decided that the investigation of a complaint should be clearly
separated from any formal hearing into the complaint. To achieve this,
separate panels will be constituted to carry out the investigation and
to conduct the formal hearing.
The Council also agreed to improve administrative support for the investigation
of cases. It decided that a report of each case, whether the complaint
was upheld or dismissed, should be presented by the panel
to the Council.
Operating procedures for Officers group The Council approved a document
setting out operating procedures for the Officers group.
The Officers group consists of the President, the Vice-President, the
Treasurer and the immediate past-president, working with an elected lay
member of the Council. The roles of the group are to to deal with issues
that require an urgent response, to handle matters delegated to the Officers
by the Council and to appoint the chairmen and members of Council committees.
The current lack of standing orders or working procedures for the Officers
group had been identified by the Governance Committee as a gap in the
Society’s underpinning governance structure.
Standing orders for committees The Council has adopted standing orders
for its major committees — Education, Law and Ethics, Practice,
Science, Governance, Audit, Resource Management, Remuneration , Adjudicating
and British Pharmaceutical Conference.
The standing orders for the committees reflect those already in place
for the Council.
Minutes of committees The February Council meeting agreed that the minutes
and agendas of the Audit Committee, the Remuneration Committee and the
Resource Management Committee should be circulated to all Council members.
When a committee is to consider any matters relating to identifiable
individuals or involving commercial items in confidence, those items
will be included on a separate confidential agenda for committee members
only.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal