Policies for Pharmacies

This page is for community pharmacies registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council that need their written procedures in order. Policy Pros writes bespoke Responsible Pharmacist procedures, dispensing SOPs, controlled drugs documentation and the governance policies the GPhC premises standards expect.

Bespoke, audit-ready policies from £65 + VAT per document. Get a quote or call 020 3951 2875 for a free scoping conversation.

Policies Pharmacies Need

Legally Required

• Pharmacy Procedures - the Responsible Pharmacist Regulations 2008 require written procedures covering the full medicines chain from ordering to disposal, reviewed regularly and available at the premises
• The Pharmacy Record - who was Responsible Pharmacist and when, including absences, preserved for at least five years
• Controlled Drugs Register and Safe Custody - the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 register, preserved two years from the last entry, with CDs kept in a locked safe, cabinet or room
• Data Security and Protection Toolkit - the annual information governance declaration for pharmacies with NHS contracts
• Health and Safety Policy Statement - required in writing with 5 or more employees

Expected by the GPhC and Inspectors

• Dispensing SOPs - the step-by-step procedures behind safe supply, matched to how your pharmacy actually operates
• Controlled Drugs SOPs - management and use procedures, with incident reporting to the NHS England accountable officer overseeing your area
• Safeguarding Policy - premises standard 1.8 requires children and vulnerable adults to be safeguarded
• Complaints Procedure - a required element of the pharmacy procedures, with records of concerns and responses
• Confidentiality and Information Governance Policy - standard 1.7 plus the GPhC's updated confidentiality guidance
• Staff Training and Competence Records - evidencing skills and qualifications for each role, or supervision while training

The Law Requires Written Procedures, By Name

Pharmacy is unusual: the written procedures are not implied, they are listed. The Responsible Pharmacist Regulations 2008 require pharmacy procedures covering ordering, storage, preparation, sale, supply, delivery and disposal of medicines, the circumstances in which non-pharmacist staff may give advice, who is competent to do what, record keeping, arrangements during the Responsible Pharmacist's absence, handover on a change of RP, complaints and incidents.

The procedures must be in writing, available at the premises and reviewed regularly, and the pharmacy record of who was RP and when must be preserved for at least five years. A pharmacy running on inherited, unreviewed SOPs is out of step with the regulations themselves, before best practice even enters the picture.

GPhC Standards Drive the Rest

The GPhC standards for registered pharmacies run on five principles, from governance through staff, premises, services and equipment. The governance principle alone expects identified and managed risks, maintained records, a way for concerns to be raised, safeguarding arrangements and confidentiality protections.

Responsibility sits with the pharmacy owner, and where the owner is a company, with its directors. Inspectors read the documents against how the pharmacy actually runs, so the SOPs need to describe your dispensary, your team and your services rather than a generic model.

Controlled Drugs Documentation

The Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 require the register, and the safe custody rules require CDs to be locked away or under the pharmacist's direct personal supervision. Practice Standards for CD governance add up-to-date standard operating procedures for the management and use of controlled drugs.

Community pharmacies do not appoint their own accountable officer; they operate under the oversight of NHS England's controlled drugs accountable officers, which means incident reporting routes and cooperation with monitoring need to be written into the SOPs.

The 2025 and 2026 Changes to Fold In

Pharmacy law is moving quickly. Hub and spoke dispensing between different legal entities has been possible since October 2025, under written arrangements between the pharmacies involved. Since January 2026 pharmacists can authorise any team member to hand out checked and bagged prescriptions in a pharmacist's absence, and from December 2026 they will be able to authorise registered pharmacy technicians to carry out or supervise preparation, assembly, dispensing and supply.

None of that removes the Responsible Pharmacist requirement or permits remote supervision, and every delegation the new law allows needs a procedure naming who may do what. Original pack dispensing rules also now permit supplying up to 10 per cent more or less than the prescribed quantity to keep manufacturer packs intact, with valproate medicines supplied in original packs, which dispensing SOPs written before late 2023 will not reflect.

What Policy Pros Delivers

Every document is written around your pharmacy: your services, your team structure, your NHS and private mix. You get plain-English procedures on professionally branded templates, consistent with each other and ready for an inspection.

• Responsible Pharmacist procedures and the full dispensing SOP set
• Controlled drugs SOPs, register procedures and incident reporting routes
• Safeguarding, confidentiality, complaints and information governance policies
• Staff training records structures and delegation procedures ready for the December 2026 changes

How to Get Started

Tell us about your pharmacy, your services and which documents already exist. We will come back with a fixed-price quote and a realistic timescale, usually the same working day.

Get a quote or call 020 3951 2875. If you run other healthcare services alongside the pharmacy, our policies for healthcare businesses page covers that side, and our data protection policy service covers patient data beyond the pharmacy walls.