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The General Pharmaceutical Council carried out just under two thousand inspections in 2025-26 – up 35 per cent on the previous year and more than 85 per cent higher than two years ago.

The regulator revealed it carried out 1,973 pharmacy inspections in the year to April in an annual fitness practise report included in papers published ahead of today’s (July 16) council meeting.

‘Focused inspections’ in which an inspector is acting on information they have received accounted for 801 of the total.

There were also 434 full inspections and 306 follow-up inspections to determine whether a pharmacy that previously failed an inspection is now compliant.

The regulator issued 32 enforcement notices in 2025-26, which comprised 22 conditions orders – these can include telling a pharmacy they may not dispense certain drugs – and 10 improvement notices. 

The GPhC revealed there were over 5,500 “regulatory contacts” which can include inspectors offering “support and guidance outside of formal inspections,” and said its new risk-based approach has freed up its inspectors “to focus on higher-risk areas”.

Two themed reviews were carried out, one focusing on pharmacies selling cannabis-based products for medicinal use and another on hub and spoke dispensing.

The regulator said it received 9,928 fitness to practise concerns against pharmacy professionals in 2025-26, up nearly 30 per cent on the previous year.

Despite this influx of concerns – a majority of which were either closed at the first stage or referred on to another body – the GPhC managed to reduce the number of cases older than two years by 20 per cent, and those older than three years by 28 per cent.

Fifty-four registrants received a warning, which was 10 more than the previous year, while 44 per cent of cases that went to the FtP committee resulted in a suspension and 22 in a registrant being struck off, which the GPhC described as “a marginal increase on the 19 removed during the previous year”.

The regulator added: “Our median timeline for closures at FtPC remains very high at just under three years, which continues to reflect our drive to progress our very aged cases through to resolution.

“We expect this to continue for most of 2026/27 but we should see it start to reduce in Quarter 4 of 2026/27.”