All you need to know to sit the common registration assessment in 2026, and to progress to registration with us.
Eligibility to sit in 2026
To be eligible to apply to sit the Summer 2026 common registration assessment, you must have approved foundation trainee pharmacist status and have started your training during your SEB’s Summer 2025 window.
To be eligible to apply to sit the Autumn 2026 common registration assessment, you must have approved foundation trainee pharmacist status and have started your training during your SEB’s Autumn 2025 window.
You can check your eligibility with your SEB.
If you are on a sandwich or integrated course, your university will advise you on your eligibility. You must have approved foundation trainee pharmacist status.
If you started training before the 2025/26 year and have previously been eligible to sit, or have sat an assessment, you will be eligible to sit in 2026, provided you meet the rest of the requirements in the registration criteria. You can check your eligibility by contacting us.
If you are eligible for a sitting, we will email you to let know in good time before applications open.
Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland trainees
If you are following the Pharmaceutical Society NI foundation training programme, there are other requirements you will need to meet to sit the common registration assessment.
Next steps
We will be publishing ready to sit guidance in Autumn 2025 to help you decide if you’re ready to sit. You don’t have to sit the first assessment you are eligible for.
Towards the end of 2025, and in good time for you to prepare to sit, we will publish the assessment regulations, and specification and framework for the assessment sittings in 2026, as well the dates they will take place.
For the first time in 2026, both trainee pharmacists whose education and training includes independent prescribing, and those whose education and training has not, will sit the same common registration assessment. The assessment itself will be the same for all trainee pharmacists, to make sure that no trainee will be disadvantaged because of the course or qualification that they completed.