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Pharmacists from some ethnic groups are more likely to have a complaint raised against them – but not to have a finding of wrongdoing made against them, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has said.

In a report published last week on the protected characteristics of pharmacists involved in concerns and investigations in 2025-26, the regulator said there was “a statistically significant relationship between the ethnicity of the pharmacist and the number of concerns received by the GPhC”.

Pharmacists who recorded their ethnicity as Asian or Black were both overrepresented, with “the largest over-representation” seen among Asian pharmacists, who made up 40 per cent of registered pharmacists and accounted for 46 per cent of concerns.

Meanwhile, white pharmacists were under-represented, making up 24 per cent of concerns despite comprising 38 per cent of the register. 

However, these gaps disappeared when the regulator examined cases that were deemed serious enough to investigate, with the GPhC commenting: “Once a concern was being progressed by the GPhC the differences reduce, and no overall statistical relationship was found between the ethnicity of the pharmacist and concerns investigated.

“The proportions of each ethnic group being investigated reflects the proportion of concerns received about each group.”

However, there was a “statistically significant relationship” between an individual’s sex and whether they were subject to an investigation.

Male pharmacists make up 37 per cent of the register and account for 63 per cent of concerns and 73 per cent of investigations.

The regulator said that out of 7,653 concerns raised in 2025-26, just 2,226 identified a pharmacy professional, of which, 396 involved multiple concerns being raised against the same individual. 

The GPhC did not compile data on the 184 concerns raised against pharmacy technicians “as the small numbers prevent us from being able to display and compare many findings”. 

The regulator said: “We plan to do more to understand the patterns that this report has highlighted including further exploration of factors that may be involved in determining the likelihood of different individuals going through our managing concerns process.

“Future analysis will consider trends over a longer period, explore aggregated data on pharmacy technicians, and investigate other factors such as role, setting and concerns type, and other decisions such as interim orders.”