PSA publishes its review of the General Pharmaceutical Council's performance for 2025/26

We have published our annual performance review of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). During 2025/26, we conducted a periodic review of the GPhC’s performance against the Standards of Good Regulation (the Standards), including an audit of its fitness to practise (FTP) function.

For this period, the GPhC has met 17 out of the 18 Standards. Our report explains how we made our decision. 

The performance review is our check on how well the regulators have been protecting the public and promoting confidence in the health and care professions.

In 2024, we introduced a new approach to assessing regulators against our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Standard. In order to meet the Standard, regulators must assure us they are delivering the four high-level outcomes supported by our evidence matrix. The GPhC met the Standard. It continued to demonstrate a strong commitment to embedding EDI across its regulatory functions, supported by clear governance arrangements, improved data collection, stakeholder engagement and work to strengthen standards, guidance and decision-making processes. The GPhC has taken positive steps to address previously identified gaps, including updating FTP guidance to reference racist and other discriminatory behaviour, strengthening EDI expectations in education and training standards, and establishing work to address differential attainment across pharmacy education and training. The GPhC also updated internal guidance on Islamophobia and Antisemitism, and we considered this an example of good practice.

The GPhC did not meet Standard 15 again this year, because it continues to take too long to resolve FTP cases. The end-to-end median has increased each year since 2018/19, and the number of open older cases has increased slightly this year following a significant fall last year. We note the increase is exclusively in cases aged between 52-103 weeks.

In line with our escalation policy, we have provided a written update about the GPhC’s performance to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, as well as their counterparts in the devolved administrations. 

You can find out more about the GPhC’s review in the full report. Find out more about how we review the regulators.

The judgements we make against each Standard incorporate a range of evidence to form an overall picture of performance. Meeting a Standard means a regulator has demonstrated satisfactory performance in that area. It does not mean there is no room for improvement.

Our oversight does not stop when we publish our report. It is an ongoing, continuous process and, where we have identified areas for improvement, we pay particular attention to these as we continue to monitor the regulator’s performance.

ENDS

Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care

Contact: media@professionalstandards.org.uk