The General Pharmaceutical Council (Statutory Committees and their Advisers Rules) Order of Council 2010

The composition of statutory committees at particular meetings or hearings

18.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), the quorum for a meeting (other than a case management meeting) or a hearing of a statutory committee is three members which must include—

(a) the chair or a deputy chair;

(b) a lay member; and

(c) a registrant member.

(2) Subject to paragraphs (4) to (7), the chair of the Fitness to Practise Committee must, having consulted the secretary of the Committee, and with regard to—

(a) matters to be considered by the Committee; and

(b) availability, experience and expertise of Committee members,

determine the particular size, composition and quorum of the Committee required for each hearing and any related meetings.

(3) Case management meetings of the statutory committees are to be conducted by the chair of the statutory committee which is holding the case management meeting.

(4) Where the chair of the Fitness to Practise Committee determines that only specified members of the Committee are required for a particular hearing and any related meetings, the chair must ensure that—

(a) the chair or a deputy chair of the Committee is one of the specified members;

(b) the quorum is not less than three; and

(c) the number of registrant members who are members of that formation of the Committee does not exceed the number of lay members by more than one.

(5) The chair of the Fitness to Practise Committee must ensure that a member of the Committee who has sat in a formation of the Committee that has made an interim suspension order or an order for interim conditional entry in a particular case must not sit in subsequent proceedings in that case.

(6) Paragraph (5) does not apply where the subsequent proceedings relate solely to measures under article 56 of the Order.

(7) For the purposes of paragraph (5), where an interim suspension order or an order for interim conditional entry is made in the course of the proceedings to determine a case substantively, the rest of the proceedings to determine the case substantively are not “subsequent proceedings” even if the case is adjourned (for whatever reason).

(8) At any meeting or hearing of a statutory committee, the number of registrant members considering a case must not exceed the number of lay members by more than one.