The General Optical Council (GOC) has agreed not to raise the annual registration fee for 2021-22 due to the uncertainty of the impact of Covid-19 on the economy and registrants.
The fee for fully qualified registrants and businesses will remain at £360, and at £30 for students.
In further recognition of the potential hardship caused by Covid-19 on lower earning registrants, the regulator has also agreed to permanently increase the qualifying threshold for the low-income fee from £12k to £16k.
Instead of only allowing applications for a low-income fee at the point of registering or renewing, applications will now be accepted at any point.