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The Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland has been told to speed up its fitness to practise casework and broaden the scope of its online pharmacies strategy as it again failed an annual performance review. 

The Professional Standards Authority, the watchdog tasked with overseeing UK health regulators, said in its latest annual report that the PSNI met 14 out of 18 standards in 2025, up from 11 the previous year.

Fitness to practise is a key area for concern, with the PSA warning that the regulator is “still taking too long” to process cases to conclusion.

The watchdog said that although the number of open cases has dropped, “the improvement was largely confined to cases at the earliest part of the FtP process and the number of open older cases remained high compared to previous years”.

The PSNI made progress on its commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) through its publication of an EDI strategy, but there are still “significant gaps” such as failing to use data “to identify unfairness in processes and decisions”.

And while the PSNI has taken steps to recognise the risks involved in online pharmacy, something previously flagged by the PSA as a priority area, the regulator’s draft guidance “is narrow in scope” and “not an update” on previous standards from 2016.

The PSA also noted the regulator’s decision to delay publishing a new corporate strategy, which was attributed to “uncertainty around the future of pharmacy regulation in Northern Ireland”.

PSNI chief executive Canice Ward said: “This report acknowledges improvement in performance across all seven of the standards that we failed to meet in the 2025 monitoring report.

“Although we haven’t made sufficient progress in four of those seven, I still feel that we should recognise the good work done by everyone in the Society throughout the past year.

“We acknowledge that there is still room for improvement as we strive to meet all 18 standards for 2025-26, but it is right for the entire organisation to take some pride in the progress made last year.”

PSNI chair Geraldine O’Hare added: “the Society is confident that with the appropriate funding and resources in place, it can further improve on its performance for the 2025-26 reporting period.”