Maria Akore Photography/Connect Images/Science Photo Library
The government has published draft pharmacy supervision legislation, following comments made exclusively to The Pharmaceutical Journal by pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock.
The draft legislation, published on 17 July 2025, is accompanied by the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) consultation response, with proposals to amend the Medicines Act 1968 and the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.
Crucial proposals include:
- Allowing pharmacists to authorise pharmacy technicians to carry out — or supervise others carrying out — the preparation, assembly, dispensing, sale and supply of medicines;
- Permitting any member of the pharmacy team to hand out checked and bagged prescriptions in the absence of a pharmacist;
- Enabling pharmacy technicians to supervise the preparation, assembly and dispensing of medicines in hospital aseptic facilities.
This comes after the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced on 17 July 2025 that the legislation is “expected to come into effect by the end of 2025, and the bulk of the measures will have a one-year transition period to allow for the development of professional standards and guidance”.
The consultation received 5,054 responses — 96% of respondents were individuals and 4% of respondents were organisations, including the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
While most organisations mainly agreed with the proposals, many individual pharmacists disagreed with some of all of the proposals, “mainly due to concerns about how the changes would be implemented in practice or with matters not related to the proposed legislation”.
The DHSC said there was “a clear split between pharmacists, many of whom opposed the changes, and pharmacy technicians who overwhelmingly supported them”.
In response to the proposal to enable pharmacists to authorise a registered pharmacy technician, 79% of organisations agreed, while 37% of individuals agreed.
On the other hand, responses to the proposal by profession revealed that 76% of pharmacists disagreed with the proposal, while 88% of pharmacy technicians agreed.
“Where concerns were raised, these generally related to the level of initial education and training required for pharmacy technicians and whether it was sufficient to take on these additional roles and responsibilities, and whether by extension this led to potential risks to patient safety,” the DHSC said.
It added that further concerns were raised about:
- Who (pharmacist or pharmacy technician) is accountable if things go wrong;
- Fears that employers would exploit the changes;
- Whether the proposals may lead to removal of pharmacists from pharmacies by allowing pharmacists to remotely supervise a pharmacy to the detriment of patients’ access to opportunistic clinical advice.
The DHSC stated that the proposals “do not enable remote supervision or change the legal requirement that a responsible pharmacist must be signed in at a registered premises when these activities are taking place and when open to the public”.
It added that the government is responsible for setting the framework, but how this is applied is up to regulators.
Gordon Hockey, director of legal at Community Pharmacy England (CPE), said that CPE welcomes the draft legislation.
“We agree these changes should improve the extent of care patients receive in community pharmacies, help to reduce delays in accessing medicines and improve access to pharmacy services. This is an important step towards bringing care closer to communities, as set out in the ten-year health plan,” he added.
Henry Gregg, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, said: “Whilst there is still detail to be understood, this long overdue modernisation of the regulations has the potential to free pharmacists to spend much more time with patients, where their clinical skills and expertise can have most value.
“The physical presence of a pharmacist within a pharmacy is a critical safeguard for patients, helping to verify and assess medicine use. As we modernise pharmacy operations, we need to retain pharmacists’ crucial role to guarantee and strengthen patient safety.”
Duncan Rudkin, chief executive of the GPhC, said: “These reforms will maximise the use of the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, and make sure all members of the pharmacy team are empowered to contribute fully to patient care.
“We want to reassure everyone that we think it is vitally important that patients and the public can have access to a pharmacist when visiting a community pharmacy and will make this clear in the standards and rules. The requirement for a responsible pharmacist to be signed in when the pharmacy premises is open for business will also remain.”
