LOCSU’s Response to the GOC’s Call for Evidence on the Opticians Act
20 July 2022
LOCSU has submitted its response to the General Optical Council (GOC) on proposed changes to the Opticians Act.
The GOC call for evidence for the review of the Opticians Act 1989 (‘the Act’) closed on 18 July 2022. The information and evidence collected will inform the development of any business case for future change to the Act, and any immediate changes to associated policies.
In its response, LOCSU stated its belief in the importance of the sight test remaining as it is currently defined by the Opticians Act due to the vital public health role that it fulfils.
We also called for no changes to restricted activities for registrants and non-registrants.
To inform our positions, LOCSU engaged with all Local Optical Committee (LOC) regional forums as well as many individual LOCs and other stakeholders in recent week.
We would like to thank everyone who was part of this engagement process for their invaluable input which we have sought to reflect in our response.
The GOC will publish a full response in due course summarising the findings from around 350 stakeholders (including LOCSU) and setting out next steps.