Registration assessment

The common registration assessment is one of the ways we test trainee pharmacists to ensure they have the knowledge, understanding, and skills that are necessary for safe and effective person-centred practice in the UK.

Passing this assessment is one of the criteria that trainee pharmacists need to meet to be eligible to apply to become a registered pharmacist in the UK.

The assessment is is jointly delivered by the GPhC and the Pharmaceutical Society of NI across the UK.

The assessment is computer-based, and has two parts:

Part 1 is a free text response paper which assesses pharmacy calculations
Part 2 is a multiple-choice paper which assesses the safe and effective pharmacy care of the public.

To pass the assessment, a trainee pharmacist must achieve the pass mark or greater for Part 1 and Part 2 in the same sitting.

Each trainee pharmacist has three attempts to pass the assessment within a set period of time. The assessment is carried out simultaneously in locations across the UK and there are usually two sittings per year, in the Summer and the Autumn.

The 2026 sittings of the common registration assessment

From 2026, trainee pharmacists who have completed education and training which is accredited to the GPhC’s initial education and training for pharmacists (IETP) 2021 standards, (which include independent prescribing) will sit the common registration assessment, and when eligible to register, will be automatically annotated as a pharmacist independent prescriber.

There will also continue to be trainee pharmacists sitting the 2026 common registration assessment, who have completed their education and training accredited to the GPhC’s 2011 Future Pharmacists IETP standards, who will not have covered independent prescribing as part of their learning, and who will need to complete additional training after they register to become pharmacist independent prescribers, if they choose to do so.

In 2026 the format and content of the common registration assessment will remain the same for all trainee pharmacists, to make sure that no trainee will be disadvantaged because of the course or qualification that they completed and the set of standards to which their education was accredited.

The 2026 assessments will not include pharmacist independent prescribing scenarios. Learning outcome 37 (LO37) - ‘prescribe effectively within the relevant systems and frameworks for medicines use’ describes the act of prescribing and cannot be assessed in the common registration assessment. It will be assessed at the 'does' level through practice-based assessments and designated prescribing practitioner (DPP) sign-off. This will be overseen by the Statutory Education Body (SEB) delivering the foundation training year for eligible trainee pharmacists whose MPharm is accredited to the GPhC’s 2021 IETP standards.

The 2026 assessment framework will contain all the information on the format and content of the 2026 assessments. It will focus on the assessable elements of 54 out of the 55 learning outcomes (excluding LO37) in the IETP 2021 standards and IETP interim learning outcomes.

It is being developed by the Board of Assessors through a co-production process with student pharmacists, trainee pharmacists, and pharmacy educationalists, and will be issued later in 2025.

Find out more about independent prescribing and foundation training

Assuring the registration assessment

To make sure that each assessment is consistent, the question papers are set and moderated by an appointed body, the Board of Assessors. All decisions about questions, papers, trainee pharmacists and pass marks are made by the board. Questions are written and standard set by a large network of pharmacist practitioners who work across UK pharmacy practice and have regular contact with trainee pharmacists and recently registered pharmacists.

The board is made up of a pharmacist chair, other pharmacist members who are a mixture of academic pharmacists and pharmacists in practice, and non-registrant members who are assessment experts.

Members of the Board of Assessors

Mat Smith, Cardiff University, pharmacist (chair)
Johanne Barry, Queen’s University Belfast, pharmacist
Heather Bell, Northern Ireland Centre for Pharmacy Learning and Development, pharmacist
Kathryn Bullen, University of Sunderland, pharmacist
Sonia Chand, Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust, pharmacist
Louise Cogan, University of Central Lancashire, pharmacist
Kathryn Davison, University of Sunderland, pharmacist
Laura Doyle, Health Education & Improvement Wales, pharmacist
Daniel Grant, University of Reading, pharmacist
Stephanie McFadzean, NHS Education for Scotland, pharmacist
Harsha Parmar, University of Manchester, pharmacist
Maddy Redmond, Open University, non-registrant member
Andrew Walker, West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, pharmacist
Alison Sturrock, University College London, non-registrant member