Something to declare

You must tell us about any issues that could affect your fitness to practise if you are:

  • already on our register as a pharmacist or pharmacy technician
  • applying to be included on our register as pharmacist or pharmacy technician (including restoring or returning)
  • applying to join the pharmacist foundation training scheme
  • voluntarily removing yourself from the register
  • a current pharmacist foundation trainee

Pharmacy professionals already on our register with something to declare:

You must notify us if there is any change in the circumstances relating to the fitness to practise declaration that you made as part of your application or renewal process. You must notify us of any such change within seven days from the day the change occurred by completing an online fitness to practise declaration. Complete an online health declaration if you are declaring a health related matter.

The online declaration forms are for pharmacists or pharmacy technicians who need to provide information on a criminal conviction or a health matter about which they have not previously advised the registrar.

If you are a current pharmacist foundation trainee, or are applying for :

  • the pharmacist foundation training scheme
  • initial registration
  • restoration
  • return to the register
  • voluntary removal 

and have something to declare, you must complete a paper Something to declare form [PDF 140 KB] and return it with your application.  You must complete a paper Something to declare - health form [PDF 127 KB]if you are declaring a health related matter.

If you are planning to submit a declaration, please send a scanned copy to us by email at info@pharmacyregulation.org.

Character and health declarations guidance

In regulating pharmacy professionals we aim always to protect the public before they are put at unwarranted risk of harm, rather than just reacting when something goes wrong. Therefore we require applicants and registrants to declare to us anything that may affect their fitness to practise. This is to assure us that, for anyone entering or remaining on the register, there is no reason to believe that they will not practise in line with the expected standards for registrants.

Fitness to practise and health

We don't need you to declare to us that you are in 'good health' when registering.

You do need to tell us about any physical or mental health condition ('health condition') that could affect you ability to practise in a safe and effective way.

Being unwell, even with serious illness, doesn't mean that your fitness to practise is impaired. So if you declare a health condition this doesn't necessarily mean we will find that you don't meet the standards for registration. But we do need to be assured that you can practise safely and effectively if you do have a health condition that affects your practice.

Declaring a health condition that could affect your ability to practise safely is an opportunity for you to tell us how you manage your condition. It also allows you to show that you have insight into any limits you may need to put on yourself, and adjustments you may need to make, for you to practise your profession safely and effectively.

Your registration will only be at risk if, on the evidence we have, it is not clear to us that your practice will be in line with the necessary standards of conduct, ethics and performance.

Fitness to practice and cautions and convictions

Declaring a past caution or conviction doesn't mean that your fitness to practise has been impaired and that we will refuse your registration. We do need to be assured that you can practise safely and effectively, and that you have insight into your past actions. Your registration will only be at risk if, on the evidence we have, it is not clear to us that your practice will be in line with the standards for pharmacy professionals.

Please note that Road Traffic offences in which the person committing the offence has been offered the option of paying a fixed penalty (e.g., certain speeding offences, etc.) will not be treated as a conviction for the purposes of renewal, registration, restoration or return to the Register, and need not be declared.

You are not entitled to withhold information about convictions which for other purposes are ‘spent’ under the provisions of the Act, and failure to disclose such convictions could result in disciplinary action by the Council.

By virtue of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 and Schedule 4 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exclusions and Exceptions) (Scotland) Order 2003, you are exempt from the provisions of Section 4(2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. However, recent changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974) mean that you do not have to declare certain cautions and convictions for offences old enough and minor enough to have no bearing on your current character and good standing. These cautions and convictions are considered 'protected' and you do not need to declare them to us.

Please read the following information carefully. It tells you which cautions and convictions you must declare, and which ones you no longer need to declare to us.

Disclosures in England and Wales

What cautions and convictions should I declare?

You must declare:

  • any conviction for which you received a custodial (prison) sentence
  • any caution or conviction for a 'listed offence'. Listed offences include serious violent and sexual offences, terrorism, and other offences which raise concerns about an individual's suitability to work with children or vulnerable adults. A full list of offences is published by the Disclosure and Barring Service: www.gov.uk/government/publications/dbs-list-of-offences-that-will-never-be-filtered-from-a-criminal-record-check
  • all your convictions if you have more than one of them - even when one of those convictions is a 'protected' conviction - however old you were at the time of the conviction
  • any other caution or conviction that is not defined as a protected caution or conviction (see the list below).

What is a 'protected' caution or conviction?

A caution or conviction is 'protected' when it is old enough and minor enough to have no bearing on our decision about your suitability for entry to the register or about your ongoing registration with the GPhC.

Changes by the government to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974) in 2013 mean that you no longer have to declare cautions and conviction that are considered 'protected'.

Cautions and convictions for 'listed offences' are never protected and must always be declared to the GPhC.

You can go to the Disclosure and Barring Service website for more information about listed offences: www.gov.uk/government/publications/dbs-list-of-offences-that-will-never-be-filtered-from-a-criminal-record-check.

When is a caution or conviction 'protected'?

A caution is 'protected' - and you do not have to declare it - if it was not for a 'listed offence', and:

  • you received it more than six years ago, or
  • you received more than two years ago and you were under 18 at the time of the offence.

A conviction is 'protected' - and you do not have to declare it - if it was not for a 'listed offence', and:

  • you did not receive a custodial (prison) sentence, and
  • you have no other convictions (whether as an adult or under 18), and
  • you received the conviction more than eleven years ago (or more than five-and-a-half years ago if you were under 18 at the time of the offence).

You also don't need to declare:

  • driving offences for which you were offered the option of paying a fixed penalty (for example, certain speeding offences and so on).

Disclosures in Scotland

All pharmacist applicants and registrants are covered by the England and Wales disclosure rules as set out above, while for pharmacy technician applicants and registrants who are resident in Scotland and/or have a registered address in Scotland, the following disclosure rules apply:

What conviction information must always be disclosed?

The law requires the following always to be disclosed:

  • any unspent convictions
  • any spent convictions contained in a list of offences that must always be disclosed.

Unspent convictions are convictions that the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 determines not yet to have reached the point where the person is to be treated, for most purposes, as if they had not committed the offence . Some convictions because of their nature can never become spent, for example an offence that carried a sentence of imprisonment for more than 2 years and 6 months remains unspent.  The point at which a conviction becomes spent depends on the sentence received and not the type of offence.

The decision about whether or not a spent conviction should be disclosed will be determined by a two-stage process.

Two lists of offences have been developed :

It is not necessary to disclose a spent conviction for an offence which is not on either list.

If a conviction is spent and the offence is included on the 'Offences which must always be disclosed' list, it will be necessary to always disclose this, no matter how old the conviction is.

If a conviction is spent and the offence is included on the ‘Offences which are to be disclosed subject to rules' list (‘the rules list’), consideration will be given to the age of the conviction and the age of the person at the time of conviction.

The following table relates to convictions on the ‘rules list’:

Age at Conviction

Period of disclosure

Treatment

18 years or older

15 years

No disclosure after 15 years

Younger than 18 years

7.5 years

No disclosure after 7.5 years

This means that a conviction on the ‘rules list’ will not be disclosed if it is over 15 years old for adults, or 7.5 years for people aged under 18 years when convicted.

Where a spent conviction for an offence on the ’rules list’ is less than 15 years old (or 7.5 years as appropriate for those convicted when under the age of 18 years), then the disposal will also be taken into account. It will not be necessary to disclose convictions that result in no punishment or intervention being imposed - that is, any conviction for which the court imposes a sentence of admonishment, absolute discharge or a discharge from a children’s hearing. Spent cautions issued by the Police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland do not need to be disclosed.

A spent conviction on this list will only need to be disclosed if it is not a “protected conviction”.

A protected conviction is a spent conviction for an offence:

  • which you received more than 15 years ago (if you were over 18 on the date of conviction) or
  • which you received more than 7 years and 6 months ago (if you were under 18 on the date of the conviction) or
  • for which you received the disposal of an admonition, absolute discharge or a discharge following a referral to a children’s hearing.