The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7500 p543
3 May 2008

Society summary

Lay vacancy to remain unfilled

The Council has agreed (extra April Council meeting) that the Society should write to the Privy Council to let it know that it intends, if it is agreeable, to leave a lay member vacancy in the Council unfilled. However, if the Society’s intention were to prove unacceptable to the Privy Council, the matter would be brought before the Council for discussion at a later date.

The Council had been asked to consider the criteria for a recruitment exercise to fill the vacancy that will arise when John Hanlon retires from the Council in June 2008.

The PRESIDENT said that, following publication of the White Paper for pharmacy in England, there was a need for clinical skills on the Council.

The TREASURER, while recognising the need for clinical skills, said that as the Society moved towards demerger, the amount of information that any new lay person would have to take on would be substantial for them to contribute to the maximum that many of the lay people do now. He took the view that the Society should not recruit because the Council would not get the full benefit of it.

After some debate, the Council agreed.