These Regulations amend the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992/662) (“the principal Regulations”) in respect of the NHS terms of service for chemists, which are set out in Schedule 2 to the principal Regulations. Chemists providing NHS pharmaceutical services are included in a pharmaceutical list of a Local Health Board, and their NHS terms of service are the terms on which they are included in that list.

Regulation 2 amends the provisions of the NHS terms of service that relate to an acceptable system of clinical governance. It imposes new obligations, including a requirement for a chemist to submit an annual clinical governance self assessment, and modifies existing obligations, including in respect of use of information.

Regulation 3 is a transitional provision which allows chemists who are on a pharmaceutical list when these Regulations come into force until 31 March 2012 to adapt their systems of clinical governance to accommodate their new and modified obligations, provided they are complying, in the case of the modified obligations, with the version of the obligation that existed prior to these Regulations coming into force.