The European Qualifications (Pharmacy) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These regulations, which are made under powers contained in the European Communities Act 1972, implement, in part, Directive 2005/36/EC (“the Directive”) which concerns the recognition of professional qualifications. The essential aim of the Directive is to facilitate free movement of persons between member States of the European Community, by setting out principles and procedures which member States are to apply in determining the rights of migrants to pursue professions which require professional qualifications.

The Directive repeals and replaces a number of previous Directives dealing with the recognition of professional qualifications. The Directive restates the majority of the provisions contained in those repealed Directives, but adds significant new provisions and makes many other minor changes to the existing regimes.

The regulations implement the majority of the Directive in relation to the pharmacy profession in Northern Ireland, by amending the Pharmacy (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 (“the 1976 Order”) to reflect the changes made by the Directive.

Those provisions of the Directive relating to the pharmacy profession in Northern Ireland which are not implemented by these regulations are implemented by the European Communities (Recognition of Professional Qualifications) Regulations 2007 (“the General Systems Regulations”).

The regulations apply in relation to the member States of the European Community and also in relation to the other EEA States, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The Regulations also apply in relation to Switzerland. The regulations use the term “relevant European State” to describe the member States of the European Community plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

The main changes to the Order made by the regulations may be summarised as follows:

(1) Article 10 cases

Article 10 of the Directive is a new provision which describes certain cases (“Article 10 cases”) in which migrants wishing to establish themselves in the practice of a sectoral profession (which includes pharmacy) in a different relevant European State are subject to the recognition regime set out in the General Systems Regulations.

The details of that regime are implemented in Part 3 of the General Systems Regulations, and these regulations amend the 1976 Order to implement Article 10 of the Directive by referring to persons who are entitled to practise their profession by virtue of that Part of the General Systems Regulations. See regulation 6 (Article 8(2)(c) of the 1976 Order).

(2) Provision of services on a temporary basis

Title II of the Directive sets out a regime for the provision of professional services on a temporary basis in a host relevant European State by a migrant who is established in the practice of the relevant profession in a different relevant European state. Such a regime already exists for the professions of doctor, dentist, nurse and midwife. However it is new for the profession of pharmacist. These regulations amend the 1976 Order to establish a register of visiting pharmaceutical chemists from a visiting European State. They also make provision to implement the details of the regime set out in Title II of the Directive, whose key features are:

the provision by the migrant of a declaration before provision of services in a host relevant European State;

the provision by the migrant of accompanying documents proving nationality, qualifications and lawful establishment in another relevant European State;

in the case of the sectoral professions in Article 10 cases only, the possibility for the competent authority to require verification of the migrant’s qualifications; and

automatic registration of the eligible service provider in the competent authority’s register.

See regulation 5 (Article 6 of the 1976 Order) regulation 8 and the Schedule (inserting Schedule 2B in the 1976 Order).

(3) Automatic recognition of qualifications and acquired rights

The Directive makes some changes to the regime of automatic recognition of listed European qualifications for the sectoral professions, and to the acquired rights provisions in relation to those professions. In particular, a certificate is now required to accompany a listed qualification, where the Directive requires this.

The provisions of the Order which deal with listed European qualifications and acquired rights are replaced by references made to the qualifications listed for the pharmacy profession in Annex V of the Directive, and the regulations. This approach has been facilitated by the ambulatory reference to the Directive which are included in the regulations.

See regulation 7 (Article 8A of the 1976 Order).