The legislation will allow:
- pharmacists to authorise any member of the pharmacy team to hand out checked and bagged prescriptions in the absence of a pharmacist.
- pharmacists to authorise registered pharmacy technicians to carry out, or supervise others to carry out, the preparation, assembly, dispensing, sale and supply of medicines
- pharmacy technicians to supervise the preparation, assembly and dispensing of medicines in hospital aseptic facilities
The introduction of the new legislation does not change the requirement for there to be a Responsible Pharmacist on duty at each pharmacy.
Pharmacists will be able to authorise any member of pharmacy staff to hand out checked and bagged prescriptions in the absence of a pharmacist from the 7 January 2026. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society have produced helpful guidance to support this change.
The remaining changes will take effect later once supporting regulatory rules, standards and professional guidance have been developed. These will be in place by the 10 December 2026.
The GPhC will develop and introduce new regulatory standards for Superintendent Pharmacists and Responsible Pharmacists, and Rules for Responsible Pharmacists, which will support the implementation of the new legislation.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society will also develop guidance to support the implementation of the new standards and rules.
We are currently holding a public consultation on our proposed new standards and rules, which is open until 25 March 2026. We will then consider all the feedback from the consultation before finalising and publishing the new standards and rules; the date for this is still to be confirmed.
Pharmacists will not be obliged to authorise others to perform tasks. The legal changes are enabling and not mandatory, and so pharmacists will have the choice to decide whether to authorise others.
If pharmacists do decide to authorise a pharmacy technician to carry out or supervise tasks relating to the preparation, assembly, dispensing, sale and supply of medicines, the pharmacist and the person receiving the authorisation will both carry responsibility for the tasks performed under an authorisation.
Each parties’ respective responsibility and accountability for the acts performed will depend on the circumstances. Guidance on authorisations may be produced in due course by professional bodies such as the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to support pharmacists.
The legal changes will not change the requirement for there to be a Responsible Pharmacist on duty at each pharmacy nor do they permit a pharmacy technician to perform the role of the Responsible Pharmacist. The changes are not intended to allow a Responsible Pharmacist to be absent from the pharmacy for longer than two hours and they do not allow for the Responsible Pharmacist to supervise pharmacy staff remotely.
The changes are also not intended to remove the need for pharmacists to undertake appropriate clinical checks linked to the dispensing process, for example, carrying out the clinical check on a prescription.
