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Letters to the Editor
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Council expenses
Clarification
From Dr G. M. Hawksworth, FRPharmS, and Mrs L. J. Stone, FRPharmS
We would like to thank Maurice
Jackson for raising the issue of Council
member’s expenses; this is an important and topical issue for the
current Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (PJ, 3 June, p654).
Regrettably, Mr Jackson has incorrectly analysed the Council members’ expenses
analysis in the 2005 annual review. The figures he quoted for 2005 did
indeed include 41Council members, of whom 18 were only acting as members
of Council for six months in 2005 when the new Council took office. Eleven,
including ourselves, only held office until May 2005.
The relevant figures for 2005 are £12,655 for Gill Hawksworth and £14,037
for Linda Stone. The higher figures quoted by Mr Jackson are, in fact,
quite clearly, those in the next column, relating to the year 2004 when
we were both, for six months of the year, as President and Treasurer,
respectively, exceptionally busy representing the Society and the members
at all levels. Expenses were incurred in fulfilling responsibilities
and requirements on behalf of the membership and statute. Reimbursement
was transparent, on production of receipts, and only for authorised activities.
All sums involved were subject to scrutiny by internal and external auditors,
and approved.
The time commitment for all Officers at that stage was significant, as
is demonstrated
in an article in the PJ (15 May 2004, p622) giving an
account of Dr Hawksworth’s period as President. It may be of interest
to the members to be aware of some of the various activities we undertook
during 2004 which were additional to the “normal” direct
contact with members. For Dr Hawksworth, there were numerous meetings
with government ministers, civil servants, health care professions and
other interested parties; leading on independent prescribing and contributing
to working groups developing workforce models, and the creation of national
boards as part of the devolution strategy; and chairing the committee
which organises the British Pharmaceutical Conference. Mrs Stone had
responsibility for all financial matters, was a trustee director of the
staff pension fund, led degree accreditation teams and chaired the Adjudicating
Committee.
These expenses were reported in full in the financial statements for
2004, presented at the 2005 annual general meeting. Mr Jackson is at
liberty to request a full report on all our extensive activities on behalf
of the Society from the Director of Resources. We have always welcomed
dialogue with members about, and scrutiny of, Council activity, and believe
it to be just as relevant now as it may have been in the past.
We would also like to reassure Mr Jackson that we have both always been
totally committed to developing, improving and promoting our profession.
Gillian Hawksworth
Huddersfield, North Yorkshire
Linda Stone
Solihull, West Midlands
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal