Amendments to the regulations relating to 2025 elections following the November 2024 Assembly meeting

The Society’s proposed Special Resolution vote timeline, which is based on legal and governance advice, is unfortunately out of kilter with the usual timings for elections to the national pharmacy boards in 2024. This would mean that the start of the election process would need to be mobilised ahead of the vote outcome. Based on feedback from board members elected during 2023 and our members’ request for transparency, we would wish to be able to make it clear to members what type of organisation they would be standing for election to. 

The Society will also have shaped and made the informal applications to Privy Council Office and the Charity Commission under the existing Assembly, and there is a risk to delivery and added complexity to manage if it is this year’s Assembly approving the initial ‘informal’ applications and vote and next year’s Assembly approving the final ‘formal’ submissions.

In light of the above, it was therefore proposed and Assembly members approved, in the open business session of the meeting held on 20 November 2024, that the following actions in relation to the national pharmacy boards and other elections for 2025 be taken:

• All elections due to have been held in 2025 will be cancelled;
• Those board members and governance postholders whose terms of office would have come to an end in June/July 2025 will be granted an extension of up to one year to their term.

National pharmacy board members affected are:

Governance postholders affected are:

The necessary amendments to the Society’s Regulations as shown here will take effect from 17  February 2025. 

Members wishing to comment to the Assembly on the changes should email Paul Bennett, chief executive of the RPS, by 27 January 2025 at the latest.