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Fife-based trainee pharmacist and Honorary Secretary of the PDA LGBT+ Network, Soh Xi Ken has won the Scottish Trades Union Congress' (STUC) Equality Award. One of Scotland's leading LGBT+ campaigners and Honorary Secretary of the PDA's LGBT+ Network has been recognised for his advocacy work for LGBT+ pharmacists in Scotland. Soh Xi Ken of the PDA received the Equality Award at the STUC Annual Congress in April 2023 in Dundee. The award praised Xi Ken's tireless advocacy for LGBT+ workers within pharmacies in Scotland, highlighting his personal experience of homophobia in Scotland and his home country, Malaysia. In May 2021, Xi Ken became a founding member of the PDA LGBT+ Network's committee and was elected as their first Honorary Secretary. The PDA LGBT+ Network is the first of its kind in the pharmacy world and has made a significant difference to the profile of LGBT+ people in the profession. Xi Ken and others within the PDA LGBT+ Network spotted that there was a lack of LGBT+-specific guidance given to pharmacy students and that their unique and specific health needs were not being addressed as part of the pharmacy education that they received.

Pharmacists, along with workers from other public sector workplaces, marched on 8 September demanding that the Scottish government take all available action to mitigate the biggest reduction in living standards workers will have experienced for generations. Pharmacists Defence' Association (PDA) members participated in the Scottish Trade Unions Congress (STUC) march to let the government know that "Scotland demands better". Paul Flynn, PDA national officer, said: "Pharmacists will be unwelcomely familiar with diminished purchasing power and a squeeze on household budgets for patients, colleagues and pharmacists but what we will see this year and into 2023 will make previous experience pale by comparison." The march organised by STUC saw thousands of workers, activists and concerned individuals march through the centre of Edinburgh's Historic Old Town in good spirits while bearing flags and banners, chanting, singing, and calling for change in Scotland.