The General Pharmaceutical Council has said 2,147 out of 2,697 candidates who sat last month’s registration assessment passed the exam.

The pass rate of 80 per cent compared with 82 per cent for the summer 2021 exam and 61 per cent in the autumn of that year. However, last month’s assessment was shrouded in controversy after students at some test centres suffered delays and had to wait until late in the afternoon to start the first paper.

Students also said they were forced to quarantine inside a lecture theatre without any food for hours and some said they were asked by staff to leave the building late into the evening before finishing the exam because the venue was closing.

GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin apologised again for the problems and reminded students who did not pass of the options open to them such as provisional registration, the right to appeal and mental health support.

“We would like to congratulate the successful candidates and we look forward to them joining our register and continuing to the next stage of their career. However, we appreciate that the June registration assessment was a difficult and stressful experience for many and we are extremely sorry about the problems faced by a number of candidates on the day,” he said.

The assessment was held jointly by the GPhC and Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland. The latter’s chief executive Trevor Patterson also pointed to guidance on its website for students who failed.

“We congratulate all those candidates who have been successful and wish them every success in their future careers as much needed additions to the healthcare workforce.

“We would like to apologise to those candidates that experienced disruption to their sitting of the common registration assessment on 29 June 2022 and to reassure them that steps are being taken to ensure learnings from the assessment are applied.”