Witness guidance

Giving evidence before the Fitness to Practise Committee of the General Pharmaceutical Council is likely to be unfamiliar to you and can seem to be a daunting process.

The General Pharmaceutical Council has replaced the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain as the regulator for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy premises.

The General Pharmaceutical Council is known as ''the GPhC'' or simply ''The Council,'' and the pharmacist or pharmacy technician against whom the complaint is made is called ''the Registrant'' or sometimes ''the Respondent''.

This guidance includes:

• Information on what happens before the hearing
• Information on what happens at the hearing
• Diagrams of the hearing rooms
• Photographs, directions and maps to our offices
• An explanation of terms commonly used in the hearing process

There is also a separate document to help you to claim your expenses.

Before the hearing

The need to attend

You have been asked to attend the hearing because your evidence of what happened is essential for the Committee to make a decision on the facts of the case against the Registrant. You will normally have made a statement in advance of the hearing, and a copy of this statement will have been sent to the Registrant prior to the hearing.

We will try to give you an early idea of the day and time when you will be needed at the hearing, but it is always very difficult to estimate how long each witness will take to give evidence. You may therefore have to wait some time to give your evidence on the day. However, refreshments will be available and we will keep you advised of any delays.

On occasion it might be necessary to serve a witness with a court summons which in effect orders them to attend the hearing. This happens for a variety of reasons including where there is doubt over a witness's attendance due to problems contacting the witness or if the witness is having difficulty getting time off work. If a witness does not attend after receiving a summons, they may be prosecuted for contempt. At the hearing itself however, witnesses who have been summonsed will not be treated any differently from other witnesses and the fact that a summons was issued will not usually be made known to anyone.

Preparation before the hearing

Please bring to the hearing all your papers relating to the case, including your statement and any exhibits to your statement. You may find it useful to look through these papers shortly before the hearing and write down any questions you would like to put our Representative.
If you have any concerns or questions about your statement or about the hearing process, please contact our witness liaison staff whose number will be printed at the top right-hand corner of your notification letter.

You should make sure that you know where the hearing is going to be held and how to get there. You should also read our separate guidance on recovering your attendance expenses.

It is important that you inform us as soon as possible if you have any accessibility requirements, so that we can make suitable provision in advance of the hearing.

It is also possible for us to apply to the Committee for special measures for the benefit of witnesses who are vulnerable, have a disability or have additional needs, e.g. the Committee may allow an elderly witness who has mobility issues to give evidence by video link. If you feel you would benefit from special measures please let us know well in advance of the hearing, so that we can provide you with further information and consider making an application to the Chairman of the Committee.

The day of the hearing

Witnesses will generally be asked to attend in the morning to allow for you to meet our Representative, see the hearing room and ask any questions. You may be asked to attend later in the day if it seems likely that you will not be required until after lunch. In either event you should aim to arrive in good time and should make allowances for travel disruptions etc. It is important to let our Representative know if you have restrictions on your time in order that the Chairman can plan the timings on the hearing day.

Witnesses (except for expert witnesses) cannot be present during the hearing until it is time for them to give evidence. There may be a waiting room specifically for witnesses called by us or you may have to wait in a general open area, but you will not have to wait in the same room as the Registrant.

Please remember that you will not be able to take bags or coats into the hearing room.

It is very important that you do not speak to anyone about the case while waiting, especially not to other witnesses, although you can of course put any questions to our staff. You might wish to bring some reading material to help pass this time.

All evidence is given under oath or affirmation.

Where possible, our Representative will give all witnesses the likely running order at the start of the day, and will keep witnesses updated as to when it is likely that they will give their evidence.

Remember!

• check in advance that you know exactly where and when the hearing is;
• bring your statement and all papers to the hearing;
• bring reading glasses if these are needed;
• aim to arrive in plenty of time;
• speak to us if you have any concerns or questions about the hearing;
• before you give evidence at the hearing do not discuss the case with anyone else.

Giving evidence at the hearing

When it is your turn to give evidence, you will be called into the hearing room and shown to the witness desk (there is no witness box) where you will remain seated whilst giving evidence. The Chairman will introduce her/himself and the other persons in the room. You will be asked to take an oath or affirmation and this is the only time you will be required to stand.

There will be a copy of the hearing bundle (papers) on the witness desk, and witnesses are usually asked to start by looking up their statement in the GPhC's bundle. Our Representative will ask you to give your full name and professional qualifications if relevant, and to read out all or parts of your statement. You may also be asked to look at and perhaps read from other documents in a bundle, in which case you will be told the page number to turn to.

Questions

You are likely to be asked questions based on your witness statement, first by our Representative, which is a stage referred to as ''examination in chief''. After this you will then be asked questions by the Registrant or his Representative, at the ''cross-examination'' stage. Our Representative may sometimes ask some further questions, at the ''re-examination'' stage of the proceedings.

The Committee members may ask questions at any time, and will usually do so after the parties have asked their questions.

The Chairman of the Committee will ensure that the hearing is managed fairly and will ensure that questions are not unreasonable or hostile.

Remember!

• take your time and speak slowly and clearly;
• ask for questions to be repeated if you do not understand or cannot hear them clearly;
• if you are not sure of the answer then say so;
• if the Committee have to adjourn for a break, lunch or at the end of the day and you have not finished giving your evidence, it is very important that you should not speak to anyone about your evidence or the case.

Afterwards

After you have finished giving your evidence you may leave if you wish to do so, or you are welcome to stay and observe the remainder of the hearing.

You will be given a feedback form which you will be asked to complete and return to us. This form will help us to continuously review and improve our processes.

We will inform you of the outcome shortly after the hearing, usually within two weeks. A copy of the determination will be posted on our website after the hearing.