Further test centre places in Scotland for the March pre-registration assessment have been secured, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has announced.

The regulator said this means that Scottish candidates who want to sit the pre-registration exam in Scotland ‘should be able to do so’, in an update this evening (3 March).

The GPhC added: ‘We’re working with Pearson VUE to complete the allocation of the test centre places to these candidates by the end of this week and they should receive confirmation emails as soon as their booking has been updated.’

The delayed exam is now less than three weeks away - with sittings due to take place at Pearson VUE test centres on 17 and 18 March.

The update also said that the GPhC is working with Pearson VUE to ensure that all candidates who booked afternoon slots due to a ‘technical glitch’ are offered a new exam slot.

The GPhC apologised to candidates for ‘the anxiety and inconvenience this has caused’ and said that they would review the problems of this sitting to ‘avoid these issues happening in the future’.

This comes as some candidates reported last week they had struggled to book their pre-registration exam at a test centre near to where they lived due to slots booking up ‘within minutes’ of going live.

Students have also criticised the regulator after they booked afternoon exam slots via the booking system, only to find out later that these sittings did not actually exist.

This latest statement also follows another apology issued by the regulator yesterday (2 March).