The UK Government has asked the General Pharmaceutical Council, and the other relevant health professional regulators, to close our temporary registers on 31 March 2024.
The UK Government has requested that temporary registers close after this coming winter, as it expects the emergency conditions under which the temporary registers were originally established, would no longer apply.
The GPhC temporary register was set up in 2020 after the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care asked us to use our emergency powers to register pharmacy professionals rapidly to assist in the national response to the COVID-19 emergency.
The decision by the UK Government means that pharmacy professionals on our temporary register can continue to practise until the end of March next year. Pharmacy professionals registered on a temporary basis must be working or volunteering in response to COVID-19, meet GPhC standards for pharmacy professionals, and have appropriate indemnity insurance arrangements. Employers must check that any pharmacists and pharmacy technicians they employ are appropriately registered to practise.
For pharmacy professionals on the temporary register that do not want to practise as a pharmacist or pharmacy technician after 31 March 2024, their temporary registration will be closed automatically on 1 April 2024.
Pharmacy professionals that want to practise as a pharmacist or pharmacy technician from 1 April 2024 onwards, or are currently intending to practise in a role that is not directly related to COVID-19, will need to prepare a detailed portfolio before applying to return to the register.