Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has made an assessment of the way in which the General Pharmaceutical Council sets and administers the final registration examination for pharmacists; and whether he has received any representations on proposed changes to those examinations and on how those changes might cap the numbers entering the register.

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is the independent body responsible for the regulation of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy premises in Great Britain. It is responsible for the way it discharges its statutory duties including in relation to the registration assessment for pre-registration trainee pharmacists. Accordingly, the Department has not made any assessment, nor has it received representations on the way the GPhC sets and administers its examinations and the proposed changes to those examinations.