Staged retention fee payments may be available from 2009
The Council has moved a step closer towards the introduction of retention fee payments by instalment. At the April
Council meeting, draft rules were approved which could see staged payments being introduced in time for the collection of retention fees for 2009.
The Council heard that the draft rules it was being asked to approve
allowed greater flexibility than the approach originally taken by the
Society, enabling it to vary the frequency of staged fee payments and
offer the service to non-practising members as well as practising members
without the need to make new rules.
There was also a change proposed which would allow the Society to offer
staged payments to pharmacy technicians once the statutory regulation
of such technicians came into force.
The Society had also received advice from the Department of Health that
it may not be necessary to undertake a new consultation exercise with
members to make the proposed amendments to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
of Great Britain (Registration) Rules 2007.
The reason for that was because the fees consultation exercise carried
out by the Society in summer 2007 and reviewed by the Council in November
2007 addressed the issue of staged payments sufficiently — and
elicited general consent for their introduction — to allow the
Council properly to reach a decision on the issue.
JONATHAN BUISSON agreed in general with the proposal but spoke against
the fee collection schedule beginning in January. The members made it
clear they did not want January, he said. That had come across loud and
clear during the consultation. “And I note that the development
costs of circa £8,000 are in the region of 15p per member. Are
we a members-backed organisation that listens, or not,” he asked.
The TREASURER replied that the Society was indeed a member-focused organisation
that listens. He explained: “Initially it was suggested that we
would have to do an in-advance payment, and the initial payment would
be asked for at the end of November. Members said that they did not want
a prepayment, but we had to have some payment at the beginning of the
year to meet some legislative requirements.
“So we have listened and we
have set the first payment at the latest possible date to allow this
to go forward. So yes … we should be a listening organisation,
and hopefully we are demonstrating that.” |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal