GOC seeks views on business regulation

The General Optical Council (GOC) is consulting on a new model of business regulation that would extend regulation to all businesses providing specified restricted functions.

On 31 March 2024, the GOC had 2,852 business registrants compared with an estimated total of 5,040 retail opticians (57 per cent).

The specified restriction functions concerned are: sight testing; contact lens fitting; supply of contact lenses (prescription and zero power cosmetic contact lenses); and spectacle sales to the under-16s and those who are registered sight impaired or severely sight impaired.

The main consultation proposals, which would require legislative reform, include:

• Extending regulation to all entities providing the specified restricted functions, unless exempted, including university eye clinics and charities;
• Removing the current legislative requirement for some categories of body corporates to have a majority of registrant directors;
• A model of assurance that includes requiring registrants to nominate a head of optical practice (HOP) with overall responsibility for the conduct of the business, in accordance with the GOC’s regulatory arrangements
• Replacing the maximum fine of £50,000 with an uncapped penalty for business registrants receiving a sanction following a hearing and introducing a power to visit a business, should it be required as part of the fitness to carry on business process
• Making participation in the consumer redress scheme – the Optical Consumer Complaints Service (OCCS) – mandatory and seeking views on whether the scheme should operate on a mediation or adjudication model.

Steve Brooker, GOC director of regulatory strategy, said: “In 2022, we opened a call for evidence and consultation on the Opticians Act and associated policies. The proposals for an updated framework of business regulation, featured in the consultation, are the next step in our journey towards becoming a modern, flexible and agile regulator. The current framework has resulted in an outdated, complex, and piecemeal system, where only around half of optical businesses are regulated by the GOC. This creates a public protection gap and an uneven playing field for businesses.

“It has become clear that effective public protection requires regulation of both eye care professionals and the clinical and commercial environments in which they deliver care. Our proposals aim to strengthen public protection, provide a fairer trading environment for businesses, and support the planned shift in care from hospitals to communities.

“Feedback to the 2022 call for evidence showed broad sector support for extending regulation to all businesses providing restricted functions, whereas this consultation focuses on how business regulation could work in practice. We want to hear from as many stakeholders as possible to help shape our final legislative reform proposals, so that these deliver maximum benefit to patients, professionals, and businesses,” Steve concluded.

The consultation will be open until 22 January 2025. To respond, visit the GOC online consultation platform or email consultations@optical.org