Leading Christian charity CARE welcomes the reversal by The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) to protect freedom of conscience in their new guidelines.

The GPhC previously stated that allowing personal religious values and beliefs to influence dispensing practice was ‘not compatible’ with the ‘person-centred’ care they wanted to offer, but now recognise the value of religion within their new guidance.

Earlier guidance could have seen Christians have to choose between their faith or their job as they may have been forced to provide access to abortifacient drugs and could have put many Christians off choosing to train as pharmacists.

In the new guidance, the Right to Conscience recognised in the European Convention on Human Rights is explicitly mentioned.

UK Director of Parliamentary Affairs, Dr Dan Boucher

“This reversal is a great victory for freedom of conscience in the UK and highlights the value that people of faith bring to the pharmacy profession.”

“People should not have to compromise their faith for their job, CARE is pleased that the GPhC recognised this and revised their earlier guidance to reflect this.”

“CARE will monitor the implementation of these new guidelines carefully; making sure that people of faith will continue to be able to have their freedom of conscience recognised within the workplaces in which they serve.”

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Note to the editor:

For more information please contact Rachael Adams on 020 7227 4731 / 07851 153693 or rachael.adams@care.org.uk

CARE is a leading charity that works with MPs, Peers, MSPs and MLAs to lobby for changes in legislation relating to human dignity. You can read about the success we’ve had and our latest work here.

For more information on the GPhC decision please click here.

To read more about The Christian Institute’s role in the reversal of the GPhC please click here.