The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has recorded a 2.2 per cent rise in its total income to £23.2 million in 2019-20 as against last year’s £22.7m.
This is due to the impact of the 2019 fee increase and the increase in the number of pharmacists and technicians, offset by a smaller reduction in the number of registered pharmacies, the GPhC has said in its annual report for the year 2019-20.
Pre-registration income, which consists of exam fees and pre-registration application fees was £1.1m in the year ended on March 31.
There was a decrease of £31k from the previous year due to a fall in the number of new pre-registration applicants, the pharmacy regulator has pointed out.
This was expected as there was a drop in the number of university students entering the degree course in 2015.
A total number of 4,016 students took the exams in June and September 2019, higher when compared to 3,786, recorded in 2018-19 or an increase of six per cent.
This in part was due to the June pass rate being lower than expected, leading to an increase in the numbers for the September sitting.
In support of the healthcare needs during the Covid-19 pandemic, a combination of 6,241 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians joined the register on a short-term basis without any fees being charged.
Expenditure
Expenditure for the financial year was £23.1m, a 2.9 per cent less when compared to the last year’s £23.8m. This is also includes achieving the three per cent efficiency saving’s target set in the 2019-20 budget.
Employee costs stood at £12.7m, higher when compared to the last year’s £12.6m. Increases in this area were minimalised as part of the efficiency savings objective by small reorganisations in some departments, the pharmacy regulator added.
“More emphasis was also placed on recruitment to reduce the use of more expensive temporary resources to cover vacant posts. Other employee costs amounted to £2.4m against last year’s £3.2m,” the GPhC said.
Overall the actual result for the financial year is a surplus of 0.3m (2018-19: £0.9m deficit). “This result reflects progress in achieving the GPhC’s financial strategy aimed at delivering a financially stable organisation that can effectively fund the cost of regulation going forward. Expenditure for the year was £1.5m (6.4 per cent) below budget expectation,” the pharmacy regulator noted.
