Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians Order 2007

I am very grateful for the broad and strong support from noble Lords opposite on this order, which is technical but extremely important. The noble Lord, Lord McColl, asked whether changes would be made following the two reviews that are currently taking place. We must wait for the White Paper, which will be published a little later this year. We do not want to pre-empt any decisions relating to that. Some changes may be made to strengthen best regulatory practice across all regulators, but pharmacists would certainly not be singled out, as it were. In relation to disclosure of information when an investigation is taking place, I well understand the concern expressed by the noble Lord, Lord McColl. It is important for patient protection that those who employ or contract with pharmacists or pharmacy technicians are alerted as soon as possible when the society is investigating an allegation. In rare cases, this will be the first warning received of a serious problem that would put patients at risk if a pharmacist or pharmacy technician continued to work. Before referring complaints to the statutory committees, the registrar of the society weeds out cases in which statutory action would not be appropriate. So there would be time. It would not be a knee-jerk reaction; a procedure would be followed before people on the outside were alerted to the complaints. I appreciate that pharmacists or pharmacy technicians and those who represent them may find the requirement for disclosure that an allegation has been made unsettling. However, this is a tried and tested approach used by other regulators and we consider that it represents an appropriate balance between a registrant’s privacy and the need to protect members of the public, which of course is the purpose of professional regulation.