(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order approves Rules made by the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (“the Society”) that relate to the constitution of, and the advisers to, four of their statutory committees: the Investigating Committee, the Health Committee, the Disciplinary Committee and the Registration Appeals Committee (“the committees”).
Part 1 deals with preliminary matters, including commencement and interpretation, and Part 2 sets out the composition of the committees.
Part 3 deals with matters relating to the appointment and removal of committee members and their professional advisers (although the appointment and removal of the chairs and the deputy chairs of the Health and Disciplinary Committees is the ultimate responsibility of the Privy Council). The Society’s appointments group is placed on a legislative footing, and this group (in some cases through its chair) is responsible for the recruitment process for committee members, including: the initial recruitment process itself (although in the case of professional advisers, it is the Council of the Society, rather than the group, that makes the appointment); determining of standards of competence and training for committee members; determining the term of office of committee members; maintaining a reserve list of committee members; and dealing with the suspension and removal of committee members from office, where necessary. Chairs of committees are also given powers to co-opt members.
Part 4 contains provisions relating to meetings and hearings, including a requirement for each of the committees to have a secretary. The quorum for the committees is provided for, and there is a requirement that at meetings, the professional members should not be in a majority of more than one. There are also special arrangements relating to the composition of meetings of the Health and Disciplinary Committees, which allow more than one panel of the Committee to sit at any one time. In addition there are provisions against bias, including a requirement to maintain a register of private interests. Voting is by simple majority, and there is a provision preventing the validity of proceedings being questioned by reason of defective appointments.
Part 5 deals with the functions of legal, clinical and other specialist advisers. There are requirements relating to the manner in which advice is to be tendered and recorded, and relating to the announcing and recording of decisions not to accept advice from professional advisers. Professional advisers are also given the power, with the permission of the chair of the relevant committee, to question witnesses.