The GPhC’s performance is reviewed regularly by the PSA, with the results reported to Parliament. This year’s report covers the period from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025.
The report found the GPhC met 17 out of 18 Standards of Good Regulation. The PSA concluded that the GPhC has still not met Standard 15 relating to timeliness of fitness to practise investigations.
In the report, the PSA references the activities the GPhC has introduced to improve timeliness, and notes that these measures will take time to bed in and for improvements to be fully realised.
The PSA’s report also highlights that the GPhC met the Standard for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Standard and references examples of good practice by the GPhC, including the creation of a Council Anti-Racism Champions Working Group. The PSA also suggests an area for improvement in relation to some of the GPhC’s fitness to practise guidance documents.
Chief Executive of the GPhC, Duncan Rudkin, said:
“We are working hard to improve our fitness to practise processes, and make investigations more streamlined and proportionate, so we are able to meet all of the PSA’s Standards of Good Regulation.
“We have seen real improvements in productivity and timeliness for dealing with fitness to practise investigations, and we are confident that this will continue. We recognise that further improvements are needed, and we are working hard to make these improvements as quickly as possible.
“Our Council will continue to hold us to account as we work towards achieving the standard for timeliness, as well as continuing to meet all other standards for good regulation.
“The GPhC is committed to doing everything we can to deliver equality, improve diversity and foster inclusion. We are pleased that the PSA found that we continue to perform strongly against the majority of the indicators for the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Standard, and referenced examples of good practice by the GPhC, including the creation of a Council Anti-Racism Champions Working Group. Our Council has just approved our anti-racism statement, developed by this working group, and this will be published shortly.
“The PSA also found there are some gaps in some of our fitness to practise guidance documents in that they do not make specific reference to allegations of racist and other discriminatory behaviour when assessing and investigating concerns. As a regulator, we have a responsibility to make sure that our processes, policies and guidance are clear and that we take concerns about racism and discrimination seriously when they are raised with us. Building on recent changes to our hearings and outcomes guidance, we are updating our investigations and investigating committee guidance to strengthen our approach to these types of concerns.”
Dionne Spence, Chief Enforcement Officer, said:
“We are taking forward a comprehensive improvement programme to fast-track the progression and resolution of our older cases, and to improve the efficiency of how we manage our investigations and hearings.
“We are pleased that the PSA’s report notes the efforts we have made to reduce our caseload, and particularly the proportion of investigations that have been open the longest. For example, as highlighted in the PSA report, the number of cases open for over 52 weeks has reduced significantly from 422 cases in 2023-24 to 305 cases in 2024-25.
“The PSA’s report also highlights that we have continued to receive a higher than usual number of fitness to practise referrals. We’ve seen a further 13% increase in referrals this year, and an overall increase of over 100 per cent since 2021-2022. We have had to divert our limited resources to deal with this increase, which has made it even more challenging to reduce our backlog of cases.”
“Despite the challenges we’re facing, we are continuing to make continued and sustained improvements; for example, in spite of the increasing volumes, the median time taken to reach an initial assessment decision has reduced from 5.7 weeks to 3.9 weeks in 2024-2025”