The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is set to launch a consultation on its fees for 2011 next week, C+D understands.

The GPhC discussed the proposals on Wednesday and although some changes were being made to the consultation document prior to its release, these did not affect the proposed figures, GPhC chief executive and registrar Duncan Rudkin told C+D.

The proposed renewal fee is £262 for pharmacists and £142 for pharmacy technicians.

This fee and the professional leadership’s body’s fee of £192 come to a total of £454, so £32 more than the current RPSGB fee of £422.

Steve Churton, president of the RPSGB, said he was disappointed that the GPhC had been unable to keep the total costs of regulation and professional leadership to within the current combined fee plus inflation.

“It is true that any organisation going through a de-merger is likely to lose some efficiency, but it is not clear why the total regulatory burden has increased so substantially,” he said.

But Mr Rudkin said the GPhC had looked at the RPSGB regulation budgets and costs as a way of cross-checking whether their own cost projections were reasonable and sensible.

He stressed that making a profit was “not on the agenda at all” for the GPhC.

Pharmacists could comment on the proposed fees as part of the consultation process, Mr Rudkin added.

For more details of C+D’s interview with Mr Rudkin see C+D May 29.