The Safer Pharmacies Charter was produced by PDA members and consists of seven commitments to improve patient safety through better working conditions for pharmacists.

Elizabeth Lee was a pharmacist who was given a 3-month suspended prison sentence for an inadvertent dispensing error at a Tesco pharmacy in 2007, reduced to a £300 fine on appeal in 2010.

[4] The case has been used since that time in pharmacy education as an aid to explain the legislation applicable to the supply of medicines by pharmacists in the UK.

In 2019 the association issued urgent guidance to its members after several serious incidents, including fatalities, involving pharmacist independent prescribers working in GP practices prescribing inappropriately or offering poor advice.

They were also concerned about employers in online pharmacies expecting prescription of high-risk medicines, like controlled drugs, without reference to the patient’s GP.