Response to GOC consultation on regulation of optical businesses

General Optical Council publishes response to its consultation on regulation of optical businesses

The General Optical Council (GOC) has today published a response to its 2024/25 consultation on an updated framework which would extend regulation to all businesses carrying out specified restricted functions.

The consultation sought views on changes to the GOC’s framework under four areas: scope of regulation; models of regulatory assurance; enforcement approach and sanctions; and consumer redress.

The GOC received 99 written responses from a range of stakeholders including optometrists, dispensing opticians, students and representative bodies. On the basis of the responses, the GOC decided:

• any charities or university eye clinics providing specified restricted functions like sight testing should be regulated by the GOC;
• the existing requirement for some bodies corporate to have a majority of registrant directors should be removed since it is no longer justified, anti-competitive, outdated and acts as a barrier to entry to the market;
• all businesses should have a head of optical practice who should be a fully-qualified GOC registrant and an employee of the business;
• we will seek a power for uncapped financial penalties as part of our fitness to practise process; and
• mandatory participation by businesses in the Optical Consumer Complaints Service (OCCS) is necessary to deliver public protection and would be a proportionate solution.

Responsibility for agreeing any changes to the Opticians Act rests with Parliament, and the pace and outcome of any changes, including those required to modernise business regulation, is determined by the UK Government.

Also published today, is research showing strong public support for all businesses providing the specified restricted functions to be regulated by the GOC and for the right to access a redress scheme to resolve consumer disputes.

In an omnibus survey conducted with a representative sample of 2,205 members of the UK public:

• 60% of respondents wrongly thought that all optician businesses are regulated, only 32% correctly said some are and 8% said none are regulated.
• 78% of respondents said that if a business is carrying out a sight test or eye examination then it should be overseen by an industry regulator.
• 69% agreed that if something goes wrong with a service they receive from an optician business, they should have access to an independent organisation to help resolve their complaint.

Read the full response to the consultation.

A summary of the omnibus survey is here, and the data tables are here.

Qualitative research with patients and the public providing views on the GOC’s proposed reforms to business regulation is here.

Director of Regulatory Strategy Steve Brooker said:

“Thank you to all stakeholders who contributed to this important consultation, as we look to modernise our business regulation framework so that it is fit for purpose in the changing landscape of eye care services in all four nations of the UK.

Currently, around half of all optical businesses are not required, or able, to register with the GOC. This creates both a significant gap in public protection and an uneven playing field for businesses delivering eye care services.

While we wait for legislative changes to be enacted, we are committed to working in partnership with stakeholders to refine and further develop our proposals, for example, in relation to the head of optical practice role. We will confirm our plans for taking forward this work once the timetable for reform to the Optician’s Act is clearer.”