GOC seeks business regulation overhaul

The General Optical Council (GOC) has published a response to its 2024/25 consultation on an updated framework extending 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 stakeholders including optometrists, dispensing opticians, students and representative bodies. On the basis of the responses, the GOC has decided that:

• 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to have a majority of registrant directors should be removed since it is no longer justified, anti-competitive, outdated and acts as a barrier to entry to the market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
• It will seek a power for uncapped financial penalties as part of its fitness to practise process
• Mandatory participation by businesses in the Optical Consumer Complaints Service is necessary to deliver public protection and would be a proportionate solution

Responsibility for agreeing any changes to the Opticians Act rests with parliament, stated the regulator, adding that the pace and outcome of any changes, including those required to modernise business regulation, would be determined by the UK government.

The GOC has also published 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”.

An omnibus survey, conducted with a representative sample of 2,205 members of the UK public, found the following:

• Sixty per cent of respondents wrongly thought that all optician businesses were regulated: 32 per cent correctly said some were and eight per cent said none were regulated
• Seventy-eight per cent 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
• Sixty-nine per cent agreed that if something were to go wrong with a service they received from an optician business, they should have access to an independent organisation to help resolve their complaint

GOC 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 eyecare 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 Opticians Act is clearer,” he added.

Read the GOC’s full response to its business framework consultation.

Read a summary of the omnibus survey, and the qualitative research with patients and the public providing views on the GOC’s proposed reforms to business regulation.