Chemist & Druggist has reported that the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is developing a “clear and transparent” policy on disqualification with the “ambition” to publish next summer, according to meeting papers.
It may be coincidental that, as we reported in our news item of 30 October 2025 (news item 609), issues relating to some of the pharmacies that were trading as “Jhoots” had been raised in Parliament and that the Prime Minister had said ““Officials are currently reviewing whether the integrated care boards and General Pharmaceutical Council need additional powers to address pharmacy businesses that do not play by the rules … “.
Section 80 of the Medicines Act 1968 gives the GPhC’s Fitness to Practise Committee the power to disqualify a body corporate from running a pharmacy business and direct the removal of premises from the register if:
(a) the body corporate or any director or office or any employee has been convicted of an offence under the Medicines Act or the Pharmacy Order 2010 (note, an offence under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 is not covered);
(b) any member of the board or any officer of, or employee has been guilty of misconduct, and the offence or misconduct is such as in the opinion of the relevant disciplinary committee renders him, or would if he were a pharmacist, render him unfit to be a pharmacist;
(c) there is a failure to meet the GPhC or Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland’s standards
The power to disqualify is limited to cases in which the Fitness to Practise Committee is satisfied that the body corporate, the pharmacist or the partnership is unfit to carry on a retail pharmacy business safely and effectively at or from those premises, so far as concerns the retail sale or supply of medicines.
Section 80 of the Medicines Act was updated as recently as 2016 (the GPhC papers say 2018), but the power to disqualify has been used only extremely rarely. The GPhC Council papers say that it had opened a small number of disqualification cases since 2018 but all of these cases had been closed, in most cases because the pharmacies in question had been closed. However, the GPhC considers there is a need “to develop an overarching policy on the use of our disqualification powers”.
The only known reported disqualification decision is Tendbrook Limited v Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain [1985] Lexis Citation 473. At a time when the Medicines Act required pharmacies to have a pharmacist in personal control (before this requirement was replaced by the requirement for a responsible pharmacist), a pharmacy owned by Tendbrook Limited at 25 Queensway in London was open seven days a week between 9 o’clock in the morning and 9 o’clock in the evening. However, the pharmacist who worked at the pharmacy often left the pharmacy between 6pm and 6.30pm. The Statutory Committee, a predecessor of today’s Fitness to Practise Committee, disqualified the company. An appeal by the company to the High Court was unsuccessful.