General Pharmaceutical Council registration fees are set to rise from October 15.

Pharmacists' annual renewal fee will increase by £10 to £250, while that for technicians will increase by £10 to £118, and the premises fee will rise by £20 to £241. The increases follow a consultation that received over 1,000 responses.

Chief executive of the GPhC Duncan Rudkin said: "Our council carefully considered the concerns raised by respondents to the consultation about this increase in fees as well as the overall economic context, but decided we needed to increase fees to meet the growing costs of regulation caused by a number of factors, including a rising number of complaints."

The increase follows a three year period during which fees were either kept at the same levels or reduced.  The £15 administration fee for setting up a quarterly direct debit will be removed from October 15.

Mr Rudkin added: “We are strongly committed to driving down our operating costs and achieving further operational efficiencies, as well as avoiding significant fluctuations in fee levels in future years to any or all registrants.”

The report from the 2015 fee rules consultation and our response can be found here.