Council makes first Rules to implement Section 60 Order
The Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has made Rules setting out much of the detail of how the requirements of the Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians Order 2007 (pharmacy's Section 60 Order under the Health Act 1999) are to be implemented.
The Council made its decision at the February
Council meeting, held a
few days after the Section
60 Order was made by the Privy Council (PJ,
10 February, p153).
Among other things, the Rules set out the ways of working for the four
new committees established by the Section 60 Order — the Investigating
Committee, the Disciplinary Committee, the Health Committee and the Registration
Appeals Committee.
The Rules are set out as schedules to three further Orders made by the
Privy Council which come into force on 30 March. Transitional provisions
apply to allegations being considered under the Society’s existing
fitness-to-practise machinery (see p229).
The Rules are essentially the same as the draft Rules on which the Society
consulted last year (PJ, 17 June 2006, p733, 24 June 2006, p767, and
1 July 2006, p23). However, to minimise parliamentary time, the Department
of Health decided that the six sets of Rules should be amalgamated into
three: the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (Registration)
Rules 2007; the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (Fitness
to Practise and Registration Appeals Committees and Their Advisers) Rules
2007; and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (Fitness
to Practise and Disqualification etc) Rules 2007 (see Panel).
What is in the new Society’s
Rules?
Rules on registration
Part 1: Preliminary matters, including the service of demands,
etc
Part 2: The form and keeping of the registers, including format
and the recording of fitness-to-practise matters
Part 3: Detailed provisions relating to applications for registration
and Register annotations to denote supplementary and independent
prescribers.
Part 4: Procedure for dealing with fraudulent registration and
registrants’ failure
to declare that their fitness to practise may have been impaired.
Part 5: The appeals procedure for a range of appealable registration
decisions.
Rules on constitution of fitness-to-practise and registration
appeals committees and their advisers
Part 1: Preliminary matters
Part 2: Composition of the new committees: Investigating Committee,
Disciplinary Committee, Health Committee and Registration Appeals
Committee
Part 3: Appointment and removal of committee members and advisers
Part 4: Provisions relating to meetings and hearings, including
administrative support, quorums, voting and measures to prevent
bias
Part 5: Functions of legal, clinical and other specialist advisers
to the committees
Rules on fitness to practise and disqualification
Part 1: Preliminary matters, including additional functions of
the committees
Part 2: Initial consideration of allegations by the Registrar
Part 3: Consideration by the Investigating Committee
Part 4: Initial stages of consideration of allegations by the
Health Committee and Disciplinary Committee
Part 5: Matters arising before and during hearings, including
referral of allegations between committees, specialist advice,
evidence
and joint hearings
Part 6: Conduct of meetings and hearings, including order of
proceedings, postponement and adjournment, disposal of allegations
without hearings,
attendance of the public at hearings, representation at hearings,
burden and standard of proof, witness evidence, protection of
vulnerable witnesses, costs of hearings and transcripts of hearings.
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During the
Council’s discussion on the Rules, John Gentle commented
that the Investigating Committee had to produce an annual report setting
out trends, patterns and learning points. He hoped it would pass on learning
points not only on an annual basis.
Mandie Lavin, the Society’s Director of Fitness to Practise and
Legal Affairs, said that she expected the continuation of current practice
such as issuing Law and Ethics Bulletins about matters with which pharmacists
were having difficulty. Nothing in the Rules would stop that. The difference
was that there would now be a statutory duty to do it.
Fees Rules p228
Transitional
provisions p229
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal