Pharmacy Act 1954

Registration of pharmaceutical chemists

1Appointment of registrar and other officers

(1)The Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain shall keep a fit and proper person appointed as registrar for the purposes of this Act, and may, for those purposes, appoint a deputy registrar and such clerks and other subordinate officers as the Council think fit.

(2)The Council may pay a suitable salary to any person appointed in pursuance of this section.

(3)The Council may terminate the appointment of any person so appointed.

2The registers and registration

(1)It shall be the duty of the registrar—

(a)to maintain, in accordance with byelaws and the provisions of this Act, the Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists established in pursuance of the Pharmacy Act, 1852, which shall contain the names and addresses, and such other particulars (if any) as are (prescribed, of all persons who in accordance with those provisions are entitled to have their names registered ;

(b)to cause to be prepared, in such form as is for the time being prescribed, and to be printed, published and put on sale in every year, a list (to be known as " The Annual Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists ") of all names which were on the register on the last day of the preceding year.

(2)Subject to the provisions of this Act, a person shall be entitled to have his name registered if he—

(a)satisfies the registrar, or on appeal the Council, that, in accordance with provisions of the next following section or of any 'byelaw made under section four of this Act, he is qualified to have his name registered; and

(b)pays to the Society such fee in respect of the registration as is prescribed;

and different fees may be prescribed in relation to registrations in pursuance of different provisions mentioned in paragraph (a) of this subsection.

(3)Every registered pharmaceutical chemist shall pay to the Society such fee as is prescribed in respect of the retention of his name on the register in any year or, in the case of a person whose name is first registered in or after the year in which this Act comes into operation (other than a person whose name has at any time been registered under the Pharmacy Act, 1868) in respect of such retention in any year subsequent to the year in which his name is first registered ; and different fees may be prescribed for different classes of registered pharmaceutical chemists, and provision may be made by byelaws for exempting any class of registered pharmaceutical chemists from liability to pay any such fee.

3Qualification by examination for registration

(1)It shall be the duty of the Council to appoint examiners to hold examinations for the purposes of this Act (including separate examiners for Scotland to hold examinations at such place or places in Scotland as the Council determine); but the appointment of any person as such an examiner shall not—

(a)take effect until it is approved by the Privy Council;

(b)continue in force for more than five years from the date on which it is made.

(2)Such examination fee as is prescribed shall be payable to the Society by every candidate at any such examination.

(3)It shall be the duty of the Society to permit any person appointed in that behalf by the Privy Council to be present throughout any such examination.

(4)The subjects at any such examination shall be the latin language, botany, materia medica, pharmaceutical and general chemistry and such other subjects (excluding the theory and practice of medicine, surgery and midwifery) as are prescribed; and byelaws may provide—

(a)for periods of time and courses of study in connection with such examinations and for dividing such examinations into two or more parts ;

(b)that no person may be a candidate at any such examination unless he satisfies the Council that he has received such a general education as the Council consider adequate for a registered pharmaceutical chemist;

(c)that no such certificate as is mentioned in the next following subsection shall be granted to any person in consequence of any such examination unless he satisfies the Council that he has received such practical training in the subjects of the examination as the Council consider adequate.

(5)Subject to the foregoing provisions of this section, the examiners may grant a certificate of competence to practise as a pharmaceutical chemist to any person who satisfies them at any such examination that he is competent so to practise; and a person to whom such a certificate is granted shall be qualified to have his name registered.

4Qualification by degree, diploma, etc. for registration

(1)Byelaws may provide that any person who satisfies such conditions as to character and otherwise as are prescribed by the byelaws and either holds or has held a degree granted in respect of pharmacy by any university in the United Kingdom or a diploma granted in respect of pharmacy in any place outside the United Kingdom or has passed the examinations necessary for obtaining such a diploma shall be qualified to have his name registered—

(a)without his qualifying to have his name registered in accordance with the requirements of the last foregoing section and of byelaws made thereunder; or

(b)upon his so qualifying in accordance with those requirements relaxed to the prescribed extent.

(2)Byelaws may provide that any person who is—

(a)a qualified military dispenser ; or

(b)a certified assistant to an apothecary under the Apothecaries Act, 1815; or

(c)registered as a pharmaceutical chemist in Northern Ireland,

and who satisfies the Council that he has sufficient skill and knowledge to practise as a pharmaceutical chemist shall be qualified to have his name registered without his qualifying as mentioned in paragraph (a) of the last foregoing subsection.

5Certificates of registration

(1)Subject to the provisions of the next following subsection, it shall be the duty of the Council, on the demand of any registered pharmaceutical chemist, to issue to him without fee a certificate of registration signed by the registrar and countersigned by either the President of the Society or two members of the Council.

(2)There shall be no obligation on the Council to issue a further such certificate as aforesaid to a person to whom such a certificate has already been issued, unless the person—

(a)satisfies the registrar that the original certificate, and any further certificate already issued to him, has been lost or destroyed ; and

(b)pays to the Society such fee (if any) in respect of the further certificate as is prescribed.

6Evidence of registration

(1)Any document purporting to be a print of the Annual Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists printed and published by authority of the registrar in any year shall, at any time before the publication of the said Annual Register for the succeeding year, be admissible in any proceedings as evidence that any person named therein is, and that any person not named therein is not, a registered pharmaceutical chemist.

(2)Any such certificate as is mentioned in the last foregoing section shall be admissible in any proceedings as evidence that the person named therein as a registered pharmaceutical chemist is a registered pharmaceutical chemist.