We are delighted to announce that after a consultation in the first quarter of 2025 that the Northern Ireland Assembly has amended the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994 in line with the recommendations made by our Council.
The new legislation can be read here.
The amendments cover several areas affecting initial education and training, including:
- Adding General Practice to permitted workplaces for Foundation Year training.
- Allowing registered pharmacists to take on more than one trainee pharmacist at a time.
- Accrediting pharmacists as Independent Prescribers as soon as they join the register, if they have completed the necessary education and training during the MPharm degree and Foundation Year training.
- Allowing the Northern Ireland Centre for Pharmacy Learning and Development (NICPLD) to submit information on behalf of trainees (with informed consent) to the Pharmaceutical Society NI.
- Aligning the rules around completion of the Common Registration Assessment (CRA) with those of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) – our counterpart in Great Britain.
- Removing the special recognition of members of other pharmaceutical societies around the world.
- Updating some outdated terminology, and acknowledging the GPhC as the successor of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society as the regulator of pharmacists in Great Britain.
We would like to thank everyone who contributed their feedback during the consultation process.
For more detail please read our briefing.