Common Registration Assessment

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and the Pharmaceutical Society Northern Ireland jointly deliver the Common Registration Assessment (the ‘assessment’) across the UK. 

The assessment is carried out simultaneously in locations across the UK and there are usually two sittings per year, in the summer and the autumn. To be eligible for registration as a pharmacist in the UK, trainee pharmacists must pass the assessment and meet all other specified criteria for registration.

The purpose of the Common Registration Assessment is to assure the public that trainee pharmacists have met a common threshold of applying the knowledge and skills necessary for safe and effective person-centred care and professional practice in the UK, at the point of registration.

Passing this assessment is one of the criteria that trainee pharmacists need to meet to be eligible to apply to become a registered pharmacist in the UK.

The assessment is a two-part, time-limited, computer-based assessment comprising:

• Part 1: contains 40 pharmacy and healthcare calculations with numerical free-entry responses and a 2-hour (120 minute) time allowance
• Part 2: contains 120 multiple-choice questions on the safe and effective pharmacy care of the public with selected responses and a 2.5-hour (150 minute) time allowance. Part 2 contains two sections. Section 1: 90 Single Best Answer (SBA) questions, each with five options, and Section 2: 15 sets of Extended Matching Questions (EMQs), each set consists of two questions with the same eight options.

To pass the assessment, a trainee pharmacist must achieve the pass mark or greater for Part 1 and for Part 2 within the same sitting. The assessment can be sat a maximum of three times within the time limit available to apply for registration as a pharmacist.

Find out more about the assessment and specific information and deadlines for the next sitting

Board of Assessors

To ensure consistency and integrity, all assessments are developed and moderated by the Board of Assessors, an independent body appointed by the GPhC and the Society.

The Board’s core role is to protect patients and the public by maintaining the assessment at the appropriate standard for safe and effective pharmacy practice at the point of registration. It oversees all aspects of the assessment, including content, structure, pass marks and outcomes. The Board comprises a pharmacist chair, registrant pharmacist members, and non-registrant assessment experts.

Members of the Board of Assessors

• Mat Smith, Cardiff University, pharmacist (chair)
• Johanne Barry, Queen’s University Belfast, pharmacist
• Heather Bell, Northern Ireland Centre for Pharmacy Learning and Development, pharmacist
• Kathryn Bullen, University of Sunderland, pharmacist
• Sonia Chand, Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust, pharmacist
• Louise Cogan, University of Central Lancashire, pharmacist
• Kathryn Davison, University of Sunderland, pharmacist
• Laura Doyle, Health Education & Improvement Wales, pharmacist
• Daniel Grant, University of Reading, pharmacist
• Stephanie McFadzean, NHS Education for Scotland, pharmacist
• Harsha Parmar, University of Manchester, pharmacist
• Maddy Redmond, Open University, non-registrant member
• Andrew Walker, West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, pharmacist
• Alison Sturrock, University College London, non-registrant member

The Board of Assessors do not discuss or correspond with individual trainee pharmacists or supervisors around assessment matters.

If you would like to discuss the Common Registration Assessment, email regexam@pharmacyregulation.org or call 0203 713 8000.