The Northern Irish pharmacy regulator met 14 out of 18 standards in its 2024/25 annual performance review, the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) has announced.
The UK’s healthcare regulator oversight body failed the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in two areas of general standards, one fitness to practise (FtP) standard and one area of guidance and standards.
Last year the PSNI met 11 standards, a decrease from achieving 15 standards in 2022/23.
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It took “immediate action to remedy its performance” after last year’s performance review and “sufficient progress has been made”.
The PSNI president Dr Geraldine O’Hare said the regulator is “of course disappointed not to have met all of the standards” and is confident that with “appropriate funding and resources in place, it can further improve on its performance”.
It’s chief executive Canice Ward acknowledged the room for improvement but said it was “right for the entire organisation to take some pride in the progress made last year”.
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The PSA has welcomed the improvement but said many of these areas improved “relate to work we would expect regulators to be carrying out as a matter of course” and stressed there are “still a number of significant issues that are yet to be addressed”.
It wrote to Northern Ireland’s health minister Mike Nesbitt and health assembly committee chair Philip McGuigan “in line with out escalation policy” so they are aware of the concerns relating to the PSNI’s performance.
Online and FtP
The PSA said there had been a lack of progress in managing and “understanding of the risks” around online pharmacy. The PSNI did not meet standard seven because it did not publish guidance for registrants on this.
It noted the consultation exercise launched in November 2025 on draft guidance regarding prescription delivery and collection, but said it was “narrow in scope” and “not an update on the PSNI’s 2016 standards and guidance on internet pharmacy services”.
The Northern Irish pharmacy regulator responded that it did understand the risks associated with online pharmacy, and works with partner UK and Northern Irish agencies to monitor it.
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It added that guidance on this risk area “will be considered” during 2026.
The review said the PSNI did not meet standard 15 because it was “still taking too long to deal with FTP cases” despite reducing the number of open cases.
It said the improvement was “largely confined to cases at the earliest part of the FtP process” as the number of open cases older than 156 weeks remained high and “continued to increase”.
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The PSNI said it was “encouraging” it met four of the five fitness to practise standards this year and noted some had not happened in “a timely manner as hoped and required”.
“On occasion, these delays are caused by investigations by third-party organisations and not fully within the remit of the Society to progress at a given time,” it added.
Priorities
The PSA said standard two was not met because the Northern Irish pharmacy regulator made “little progress” in publishing a review of the code, guidance for registrants, delivering education reform and improving its website.
It said it was “failing to prioritise” these issues identified and its decision not to publish its 2025-30 corporate strategy “because of the uncertainty around the future of pharmacy regulation in Northern Ireland” added to failing this standard.
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PSNI responded that it launched its new code of conduct, ethics and performance on January 26, and its new corporate strategy on February 24, but both fell outside of the period the report covered, which was until the end of 2025.
Progress was made in standard three, but “significant gaps” not addressed included the PSNI “not using data and evidence to identify unfairness in processes and decisions, not using research to inform its work, and not publishing its own EDI data, research and analysis”.
The PSNI accepted there is “still work to be done” and is committed to “to meeting the highest possible standards of equality, diversity and inclusion”.
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The PSA said it will continue to monitor the PSNI’s performance through meeting its chief executive each month, attend council meetings and receive key stakeholder feedback.
It added it will conduct an audit of the PSNI’s FtP function in its next performance review.
PSNI president O’Hare said the improvements were a “testament to the hard work and dedication of all staff and council colleagues”.
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Its chief executive Ward added: “This report acknowledges improvement in performance across all seven of the standards that we failed to meet in the 2023/24 report, and although we haven’t made sufficient progress in four of those seven, I still feel that we should recognise the good work done by everyone in the Society throughout the past year.”
It comes as the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) met 17 of the required 18 standards in its annual PSA report in September.
