The Pharmacy Order 2010

The statutory committees

5.—(1) The Council must by rules, as regards each of the statutory committees, make provision with regard to—

(a) its size and composition (which may vary according to the functions the committee is performing), but the number of members of the committee who are registrants must not exceed the number of other members on the committee by more than one;

(b) the appointment, performance, suspension and removal from office of its members;

(c) the appointment, performance, suspension and removal from office of its chair (who is to be one of its members);

(d) the quorum at its meetings; and

(e) its procedures, including deputising arrangements with regard to its chair.

(2) The provisions with regard to size, composition and procedures of a statutory committee may, except in relation to the Investigating Committee, provide for the chair of the committee to have the power to determine a particular size and composition for the committee for a particular hearing or inquiry before the committee and, in particular, to determine—

(a) that only specified members of the full committee are entitled to sit at the hearing or inquiry and decide the matter to which the hearing or inquiry relates (but the chair or a deputy chair must be one of the specified members); and

(b) a different quorum for the hearing or inquiry and the related meetings of the committee than would otherwise be the case (which must not be less than three),

but where the chair does determine a particular size and composition of the committee for a particular hearing or inquiry, the chair must ensure that the number of registrants who are members of that formation of the committee does not exceed the number of other members by more than one.

(3) Rules under this paragraph may in addition include provision with regard to—

(a) the education and training of members of a statutory committee, and the rules may provide that members are to meet competencies that the Council may determine from time to time;

(b) the attendance of members of a statutory committee;

(c) requiring a statutory committee to—

(i) establish and maintain a system for the declaration and registration of private interests of its members, and

(ii) publish in such manner as it sees fit entries recorded in its register of members’ private interests; and

(d) the functions to be performed by a statutory committee and how it is to perform them.

(4) Rules under this paragraph must provide that—

(a) no person may be both a member of the Council and of the Appeals Committee or the Fitness to Practise Committee;

(b) no person may be both a member of the Investigating Committee and of the Fitness to Practise Committee;

(c) no person who is a member of the Fitness to Practise Committee that has made an interim order under article 56 in proceedings in any case may sit as a member of the Committee in subsequent proceedings in that case, unless the subsequent proceedings relate solely to measures under article 56; and

(d) the appointment, suspension and removal of members, chairs and deputy chairs of the statutory committees must be by the Council, except that the rules may provide for the Council to enter into arrangements with another person, body or committee (including a committee of the Council that is not one of the statutory committees) to carry out all or any of these functions on the Council’s behalf.

(5) Rules under this paragraph may provide for a statutory committee to—

(a) have more than one deputy chair;

(b) co-opt members onto the committee in such circumstances as may be specified in the rules; and

(c) discharge, in such circumstances and subject to such conditions as may be specified in the rules, functions of the Council.

(6) The powers of a statutory committee may be exercised even though there is a vacancy among its members.

(7) No proceedings of a statutory committee are to be invalidated by any defect in the appointment of a member.