Pharmacy Forum Publishes New Guidance on Pharmacist Authorisation

In December 2025, new legislation was approved by UK government that enables pharmacists to authorise other members of the pharmacy team to conduct certain tasks.

You can read more about that legislation in a letter from the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer here.

In NI, the only part of the legislation that currently applies is that relating to pharmacist authorisation, i.e. when a pharmacist chooses to authorise another member/(s) of the pharmacy team to hand out medicines that have been bagged and checked when the pharmacist is absent or treated as being absent.

Pharmacy Forum have produced a guide to support pharmacy teams who choose to utilise this legislation to introduce new processes that follow high standards of professional practice, and patient safety.  You can find the guidance document here – PFNI Guidance on Pharmacist Authorisation: Supply of Checked and Bagged Medicines

We encourage pharmacists and their teams to make full use of this resource.

If you or your team use the guidance – let us know! You can contact us via pharmacy.forum@psni.org.uk